November 2006

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Viet Nam: A Soldier Practices Peace
by Pam Frankenfield

How does a soldier practice peace? If you are Mike Boehm, you visit a village called My Lai and transform the lives of its residents. Members and guests of the ICPJ and the Gettysburg Friends Meeting heard Mike’s story at a gathering at the Adams County Library in Gettysburg on November 8.

The journey toward peace began for Mike when he served in the U.S. Army and was sent to Viet Nam during the War. He was, as soldiers say, “in country” from 1968 through 1969, a year and a half in all. His voice, strong and confident, changes ever so slightly as he describes the conditions under which he served at that time. While he did not participate in actual combat, he bears the emotional scars of daily rocket and mortar blasts directed toward his base and the loss of fellow soldiers from his life.

When he first returned to the U.S., he thought he would not be affected by his time in “Nam.” But he was wrong. In 1977 he attended a technical school and realized he had suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He took the uniform and medals from his Army service and threw them away. He went to the Veterans Administration office and told them he was refusing his G.I. Bill money. From that forward, healing for him would begin.

In 1992, Mike went back to Viet Nam with other military veterans to build a small hospital in My Lai. My Lai was the site of a mass murder of villagers by U.S. soldiers on March 16 th, 1968, known as the My Lai Massacre. The soldiers had, U.S. investigators discovered, killed more than a hundred people (probably several hundred), including women, children, and small babies, under the command of U.S. military officers. Other atrocities were committed by the same soldiers just before the murders.

Twelve veterans from various states of the U.S. gathered in Southern California’s Magic Mountain amusement park to prepare for their journey to My Lai. For the first time, these former soldiers, many of them combat veterans, would work side by side with Vietnamese villagers and former Vietnamese soldiers to build schools, hospitals, and perhaps as important, relationships never before experienced. On that first visit, Mike learned the hard facts of the war. Many villagers had suffered from the effects of napalm, which was dropped upon their villages by U.S. aircraft. (The Viet Cong would gather in villages to blend in with the civilians as they fought the U.S. and other allied forces.)

In building the village clinic, Mike experienced the extreme heat and humidity of the country once again. Flashbacks of his time “in country” in the 1960s came to him. When the clinic was build, all by hand with no heavy equipment, he took out his violin and played “Taps,” as a healing partly for the departed and partly, he said, for himself.

He learned that by doing good, the healing would take place. Madison, Wisconsin, vets started a bank loan process for the poor at My Lai. But while $3000 would help, it was soon realized that more funding would be needed. The Madison Quakers have been involved in projects in Viet Nam since 1994. Shrimp boats, livestock, processing cassava flour, and making rice cakes are some of the small business endeavors which the funds provide for start-up purposes. More than 98 per cent of the loans are paid back. The money is then loaned out to others, mostly women, as they are the primary caregivers of the children.

Through the combined efforts of vets and the Society of Friends the loans were extended to $10,000. A family’s standard of living is greatly improved when they participate in economic projects and micro-credit programs. By running their own businesses they have improved their lives. The mud huts they previously lived in can be replaced by solid walls, where windows with screens keep out biting bugs, which carry diseases.

Mike is the Project Director, having been introduced by Madison Friends Meeting members in 1994 to other members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). He says he is not a member of their faith but has found a brother/sisterhood in their company. His vision and enthusiasm for these efforts to assist the people of Viet Nam is evident as he speaks.

Mines from the war are still being encountered by villagers. Live mines have taken a toll on the people over the years. One young girl of fourteen stepped on a mine in 1972 and lost one leg. She met another amputee and they later married. Mike showed a photo of this woman meeting with former U.S. soldiers in 2003. U.S. military veterans have helped clear mines while visiting various villages, so that families are safer and can continue to work in their own communities.

In 1989 Morley Safer, of TV’s “60 Minutes,” came to Viet Nam to tell the story of MIA’s. For the Vietnamese, there are 300,000 MIA’s.

In May of 1995, the Hanoi newspapers covered the story of the My Lai Peace Park. For the country of Viet Nam, which has had three thousand years of occupation, this was the first Peace Park. The My Lai Peace Park became a reality on March 16, 2004, with its dedication in the presence of former North Vietnamese soldiers and former U.S. military service members.

The work continues, and Mike Boehm travels much of the year to inform Americans of the efforts of the Madison Quakers and the vets. For additional information, visit www.mylaipeacepark.com, phone 608-244-9505, or write Winds of Peace, c/o Mike Boehm, 2312 E. Johnson St., Madison, WI 53704.

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