“I don’t think we were truly honored when we returned (home). I think it’s time we are,” Emary said. “It’s time to honor the entire 452nd.”

The unit, called up to service in Vietnam 50 years ago, wasn’t on the front lines fighting. They were towards the back, providing supplies for a large number of troops. But they paid a price. Fifty-one members of the unit have died.

“Not everyone who lost his life lost it there (in Vietnam), Emary said.

One of Emary’s Worthington High School students, Steven Potts, now a Hibbing Community College history professor who formerly taught at Minnesota State University, Mankato, was guest speaker at the reunion.

Staff photo by Fritz Busch Hibbing Community College history teacher Steven Potts, who has studied the Vietnam War for 40 years and taught college classes about it for 34 years, talks at the 452nd General Supply Company 50th Anniversary Reunion at the Best Western Plus, New Ulm, May 18.

Potts said his parents made sure he knew was what going on in the world by ensuring he watched the national evening news on television each night. He has been studying the war for 40 years and taught classes about it for 34 years.

“I saw Vietnam War reports daily from 1964 to 1975,” Potts said. “Later on, I remember a psychologist encouraging veterans to talk about the war in schools.”

Potts said he interviewed a soldier who never told his wife he was a Vietnam Veteran for 23 years until he encouraged him to do so.

“The next day, his wife called me and said she was so mad at me, she didn’t know if she should kiss me or kill me,” Potts said.

Growing up in Worthington, Potts worked for the Worthington Daily Globe newspaper and came across Worthington Vietnam Veteran and author Tim O’Brien.

“His book ‘If I Die In a Combat Zone,” is about growing up in Worthington and going to Vietnam,” Potts said. “He was featured on the Public TV network’s Vietnam series last fall.

Potts talked about interviewing a Vietnam Veteran who refused to shoot civilians at the Mai Lai Massacre for nine hours one day in Mankato. He said many Vietnam Vets were falsely accused of being baby killers when they came home from the war.

“Lots of veterans came back to Mankato State to go to school tuition free recently,” Potts said.

He encouraged Vietnam Veterans to tell their war stories to their children and grandchildren while they can.

“About half of the Vietnam Veterans I talked to have died since 1990,” Potts said.”

He suggested Fred Wilcox’ book “Waiting For An Army to Die” is a great true story about a Vietnam Vet dealing with Agent Orange, an herbicide used to defoliate Vietnamese jungles during the war.

One of the 452nd soldiers, Leroy Schweiss of Fairfax told of getting a personalized “Merry Christmas” message from his Company Commander, Elroy Schwirtz of Arlington while on duty at a remote spot, Phi Bai.

Schweiss said another memory was when U.S. Marines threw tear gas grenades at his unit “just for fun.”

fbusch@nujournal.com