North Dakota military vets honored with D.C. trip

A simple “Thank you for your service” can stir up conflicting memories at times for some military veterans, especially those who served in Vietnam.

While not often subjected to the abuse their brothers in arms received upon stepping off a tarmac after touching down on at other airports across America, many North Dakota Vietnam vets simply got the cold shoulder. No fanfare, no flags, no clapping crowds.

For the 99 veterans joining the Western ND Honor Flight – particularly the 88 with Vietnam experience – the claps, flags and thank you wishes received on their April 30 trip to Washington, D.C., are a welcome, if long coming, change.

“What impressed me most was the volunteers, they’re so accommodating,” James Mitzel, a US Army veteran from Bismarck, drafted in 1968 at 24 years of age, who served as a paymaster in Vietnam. “When you get off the bus they clap, when you get on the bus they clap – it’s just overwhelming. It’s something we didn’t receive getting back from Vietnam.”

Like many Vietnam vets returning to North Dakota, Mitzel returned alone on a domestic flight.

“Nowadays when they send you out to a war zone you go as a unit, come back as a unit. It makes a big difference.”

James Hilzendeger, a former sergeant in the US Army who joined up in 1969, said they all saw the demonstrations against the war before returning and felt like they almost had to sneak home.

Upon arrival back in North Dakota, he was greeted only by his mother and one of his seven brothers.

“The Vietnam War wasn’t a popular war,” Hilzendeger said. “It wasn’t popular at all.”

On Sunday [April 30], veterans visited the Marine Corps War Memorial, sometimes known as the “Iwo Jima” memorial, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, the Military Women’s Memorial and the Air Force Memorial.

Monday May 1 visits included a viewing of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, the Navy Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.

Francis Miller, currently living in Mandan, joined the US Army early in 1965, was a communications specialist among other duties in Vietnam.

“I wish a lot more people could understand the consequences of conflict,” Miller said. “I was disappointed in the way things ended [with the war], but there’s really nothing you can do about it.”

Richard Forderer, also of Bismarck, joined the US Army in 1969, serving in the 1^st Infantry Division also known as the Big Red One, as a mechanic. Upon returning to North Dakota he worked mostly as a truck driver.

“A lot of remembering,” Forderer said of what was on his mind after the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ceremony, which was visibly emotional for veterans who lost friends and fellow soldiers in the line of duty. “Remembering what people gave to serve their country and everything.”

Forderer, like others, hopes the memories of those who served and of those who lost their lives in Vietnam don’t fall away from popular consciousness so quickly.

“People who were in the military [remember] but civilians, I’m not sure, especially the younger generation,” he said. “There’s not much being said about Vietnam.”

Woman Vet Honored

At the Women’s Military Memorial, Victoria Neff-Tolbert, a US Army veteran from Turtle Lake, was honored with an award for her service. Enlisted from 1974 to 1978, Neff-Tolbert joined the army out of high school to “see the world” but was soon confronted with a “man’s world.”

“They just didn’t want us there,” she recalls of one trip to a firing range where an instructor cautioned that she should hold the butt of the 12-gauge rifle close to her shoulder to reduce recoil. “The guy next to me says, “You’re a female, you’ll want to hold it a few inches away so it has a further distance to travel, so it won’t hurt as much.”

Not a good decision.

“Do you know how hard it is to do push-ups when your shoulder is all messed up?”

Many of the veterans on the trip weren’t even aware of the existence of the Women’s Military Memorial, which sits just outside the rolling green knolls of Arlington National Cemetery, until the visit.

“It’s just absolutely amazing,” Neff-Tolbert, the first woman veteran on a Western ND Honor Flight, said. “If there are any females out there who haven’t taken advantage of being able to go do this, it’s absolutely incredible.”

Jerome Schaack of Bismarck, who served in the US Air Force from 1957 to 1959, said the Women’s Military Memorial was a pleasant surprise of the visit.

“I didn’t know it existed, to tell you the truth,” Schaack said.

George Walker, a US Air Force veteran who served from 1964 to 1967, from Mandan, worked as an aircraft prop mechanic in the Philippines and in Saigon during the war.

“They paid their dues too,” Walker said of women veterans. “And some of them gave it all.”

Western ND Honor Flight started in 2019, but was disrupted by the pandemic, making this trip only the second for the organization. It is part of the Honor Flight Network, now operating since 2005, bringing over 250,000 veterans to visit the memorials in nearly two decades.

The Western ND Honor Flight trip would not have been possible without the support of donors, particularly the Tom & Frances Leach Foundation, which provided $100,000 for the bulk of the funding of the $191,000 needed for the flight, hotel, meal and other costs. Other major donors included the Grand Treasure Casino in Trenton and the Freedom Riders Motorcycle Club in Bismarck.

Four veterans who had been selected to join the trip but have passed away include Raymond Klein, Sr., Paul A. Bodine, Kenneth D. Holland and Charles L. Miller, according to information provided by Western ND Honor Flight.

Of note: One veteran, Arlyn Bjerke, served in the Army from 1970 – 71 in the Vietnam War is from the Lake Region area, he lives in Maddock, ND.

Efforts by the DLJ to contact Mr. Bjerke were unsuccessful.