Josh Turek, his Vietnam War veteran father, reflect this Memorial Day at The Wall That Heals
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa —
The words that came to John Turek’s mind weren’t just words. They were numbers, too.
“Fifty eight thousand,” said John Turek, a veteran of the Vietnam War, as he stood feet from The Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on display for most of the last week in Council Bluffs.
“We lost so many guys over there, it’s hard to comprehend,” John Turek said.
John Turek, 76, the father of U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, a Council Bluffs legislator, today covered the full grounds of The Wall That Heals experience in its temporary location at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs.
“You were there for 22 months, a lot of the wall is going to cover when you where there,” Josh Turek observed to his father as they absorbed the wall.
The elder Turek, who also lives in Council Bluffs, pointed to spots in Vietnam where he served in the Navy. His finger went right to the rivers where his craft, an LST, a Landing Ship Tank, delivered troops and supplies in the Vietnam War.
Soon, the Tureks found Kim Smith, 49, of Council Bluffs, a volunteer with The Wall That Heals. Using an app on her smart phone Smith helped them locate the name of one of the 58,318 Americans represented on the wall — Pfc. Robert William Smith who died in 1966 in Vietnam in a hostile ground engagement. John Turek knew Smith in high school in Wentzville, Missouri.
“He was such a close friend before we went in,” John Turek said of Robert Smith, now gone for nearly 60 years.
.John Turek said having the wall in Council Bluffs for Memorial Day is extraordinary for both the city and veterans. The wall conveys respect for veterans, he said.
“I think it’s amazing that they do this,” John Turek said.
David Hazelwood, 58, a Marine combat veteran who served after Vietnam, said The Wall That Heals is far more than an exhibit.
“It has been a place of remembrance, healing and unity,” Hazelwood, who lives in rural Pottawattamie County, said in remarks to close out the wall experience. “For many veterans The Wall That Heals represents a deeply personal connection to brothers and sisters they served beside, names etched into history, but never forgotten in the hearts of those who knew and loved them.”
The younger Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969, much of it on rivers.
“I didn’t realize when I was over there that this would be the result,” John Turek said, motioning to his son’s wheelchair.
Like his father, and many other veterans and family members gathered this afternoon at the memorial, Josh Turek went immediately to the number 58,000 when talking about the impact of the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
“It’s profound when you see the size of this, when you think of 58,000 brave men and women losing their lives,” Josh Turek said. “It’s emotional to see that amount of names. In our country, it’s just over and over and over finding ourselves in these forever wars.”
“Unfortunately, for me, I’m an example of the generational consequences to this,” he added. “The bombs stop and the consequences don’t.”
The Wall That Heals will be transported to Indiana for an early June exhibit. It is back in Iowa — in Manning from July 23 to 26, and in Brooklyn, Iowa from July 26 to August 2.
About The Iowa Mercury
(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )
Well done, Doug. Well done.
Heartbreaking.