Staff photo by Fritz Busch A little more than 50 years after the end of the war, New Ulm’s Vietnam War Memorial panels and benches stand in German Park. Installed in October 2022, the monument honors six young New Ulm servicemen killed in the war, the families that supported them, and forever honor their sacrifices.

NEW ULM — “We were young. We have died. Remember us,” reads a Vietnam Veterans Memorial panel in German Park.

As Memorial Day approaches, Cleo Polzin thinks about a poem for Purple Heart recipients and their survivors, “Remember Me.”

She put the poem in a glass case next to a photograph of her son Henry Polzin, who is listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial panel along with five other New Ulm men who died in the war and received Purple Heart medals — Dennis Wellmann, Daniel Lloyd, Timothy Sullivan, Steven Seemann, and Rickey Slander.

The poem reads: “Remember me as your son. When you used to doctor my bumps. Remember me playing in the dirt. Remember me crying when I would get hurt. Remember me walking to get my diploma.

Remember me arguing and saying I’m gonna. Remember me as a man doing my job. Remember me, please don’t stop. I did what I had to do no matter what. I was heavily trained and I fought. No regrets as I’m in a wonderful place. Remember me when you look at that Purple Heart in your glass case.”

The Purple Heart is a U.S. military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military.

“The words on the (New Ulm Vietnam war monument) are so nice. It’s the survivors that bear the burden now. I have a nephew who served three Vietnam War tours. He suffers from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and Agent Orange to this day. He writes me all the time from Eureka, Ca. He came for my birthday a couple years ago. He’s far away but we’re very close. He saw a lot in Vietnam,” said Polzin.

“Five of my children live on California. I’ve got six grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. That’s what keeps me going. The bad part is they don’t live close,” she said.

Her daughter Mary served more than 11 years in the U.S. Army including a Gulf War tour.

“We have so much gratitude for those who up the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It gave us some peace, knowing they (New Ulm Vietnam Vets killed in action) won’t be forgotten. It’s still be there when we are gone. What we want is for people not to forget. Ten men from New Ulm and Sleepy Eye died in Vietnam,” said Mary Polzin.

Cleo Polzin said the Vietnam War was very controversial to some people.

“What’s important is that the lives lost were very important and very precious to all of us. I used to go to (American) Gold Star Mothers meetings with some of the mothers of the New Ulm servicemen who died,” she said.

Mary Polzin said it doesn’t get easier around Memorial Day.

“We lost our past, present and future. More than 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam that affected millions of people,” she said.

“I hope and pray and God-willing, there won’t be another war they send our sons to. They were just teenagers that were drafted. They had no idea how horrible it was in Vietnam,” said Cleo Polzin.

New Ulm Vietnam Monument designer and writer Rick Prescott said the monument honors New Ulm men who died in Vietnam, remembers all who served and offers a glimpse of the war.

The monument reads that the Vietnam War symbolized a global conflict between communism and democracy.

The U.S. began sending military aid and special forces to Vietnam in the 1950s. The first combat troops landed in 1965. The American presence peaked in early 1969 at more than a half million soldiers.

Vietnam’s hills, jungles and rice paddies left U.S. and allied troops very vulnerable to ambush and unconventional attacks.

Guerrilla fighters from the North, known as the Viet Cong, infiltrated the South and were often indistinguishable from civilians.

A divergence of public opinion impacted returning soldiers, deepening their wounds, haunting some veterans for the rest of their lives.

American soldiers fought with honor, winning all significant battles. American involvement ended in 1975. Casualties included more than a million Vietnamese civilians and fighters.