Etchings of the fallen

JBU professor to take etchings at Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Michael Burchfiel/Herald-Leader John Brown University Professor Preston Jones will take etchings of Vietnam Veterans’ names later this month in Washington, D.C.
Michael Burchfiel/Herald-Leader John Brown University Professor Preston Jones will take etchings of Vietnam Veterans’ names later this month in Washington, D.C.

Not every veteran of the United States military gets the chance to visit the nation's capital city and see the array of monuments to fallen service members in person. One John Brown University professor wants to give Siloam Springs veterans and families a chance to have something to remember family or friends who were lost in the Vietnam War.

Professor Preston Jones, who teaches history at JBU, will be visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., next week, and he has offered to take etchings of names at the memorial. This will be Jones' fourth trip to the Vietnam wall, and the second trip that Jones will devote a significant amount of time to the memorial.

Many veterans never get the chance to visit the monuments to the armed forces in Washington, D.C., Jones said. Others, like one veteran Jones met, go to the monuments and find themselves unable to get near due to emotional trauma or stress, and many veterans don't want to go at all, Jones said.

"I'm fortunate to be able to go," said Jones.

Jones decided to offer to take etchings to give veterans or family members who could not go to the memorials a physical item commemorating a name on the wall. Jones said he got the idea when a JBU professor asked for a picture from a cemetery in the Philippines, where he was visiting at the time.

The trip will be the first time Jones has brought etchings back from the Vietnam Wall. Jones said he will laminate the etchings of the names that he has on a list, which includes those on the recently constructed memorial in Siloam Springs.

Jones' trip will serve a few purposes. In addition to the goal of finding and etching each of the names he has received, Jones will wear a shirt and hat with text inviting veterans to tell him their stories.

"By now I've gotten pretty good at finding out if someone is interested in talking," said Jones, himself a Navy veteran. "I try to be respectful, especially for the guys who lost somebody, or the family members who lost somebody in Vietnam."

On a previous trip, Jones met a veteran who told him that he needed to make a confession. The veteran had served in the Vietnam War, and had lost a medic that was serving with his group. The veteran had only known the medic as "Doc" and had never learned his real name. He had come to the memorial in hopes that a name would stand out to him as belonging to the fallen medic.

Jones said he collects such stories both for his classes and for himself.

"It's really just a profound experience, especially if you know about the wall, if you know about the war," Jones said.

What guides Jones' conversations at the Vietnam Wall is not sentiment or interest in war stories involving guns and tanks and other instruments of war. Jones is more interested in the human interest side of the stories of the veterans who are willing to talk to him. Jones said he wanted to talk to people who had dealt with tremendous stress, 21-year-olds who had been charged with the responsibility of flying helicopters or defending their friends and civilians back home.

"That's incredible," Jones said. "Twenty-one-year-olds in the normal course of human affairs don't have to deal with that kind of stuff."

Jones' visit to the memorial comes a few months in advance of another event he is helping host. In early 2018, JBU will hold an event marking the passage of 50 years since the Tet Offensive, one of the largest military operations in the Vietnam War. At least three veterans from that offensive live in Siloam Springs, and Jones hopes to have them on stage to teach and share their experiences. Jones also said he may try to host a video call with someone in Vietnam.

General News on 07/19/2017