Shiprock vets honored in Vietnam War veterans parade

By Cyrus Norcross
Special to the Times

SHIPROCK

Vietnam veterans, their families and supporters participated in the 5th Annual Vietnam Veterans Parade Shiprock on April 2.

The parade celebrates the Vietnam veterans and National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29.

The importance of March 29 is that the last U.S. combat troops departed the Vietnam War on March 29, 1973.

President Obama proclaimed the National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29, 2012. President Trump signed the Vietnam War Recognition Act of 2017, officially recognizing March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

The parade was spearheaded by the nonprofit Northern Navajo Veterans Organization.

Raising awareness

Harlin Benally, a board of directors member for Northern Navajo Veterans, has helped organize the parade for five years since the Vietnam War Recognition Act was signed.

Benally wants to honor Vietnam veterans and doesn’t want them to be forgotten.

“When the Vietnam veterans came back, a lot of them said they were harassed,” Benally said, “Going home, their relatives, the general public would harass them.

“They didn’t have the welcome home or recognition of coming back from the conflict (Vietnam War),” he said.

“There was no recognition of the Vietnam veterans going on at that time,” Benally said. “Even to this day, I don’t hear anything about recognizing the veterans.”

Benally wants to raise awareness that the Navajo Nation doesn’t have the resources to provide support for veterans.

“Part of our mission is to raise awareness for the resources needed by the Navajo on the Navajo Nation. Coming home, there were no resources for them (Vietnam veterans),” Benally said.

“Even today, there are no Veterans Affairs clinics or veterans center on the Navajo Nation,” he said.

“There is no place where veterans can seek therapy, counseling, in regards to dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), readjustment back into society,” Benally said. “The resources that are available for them, are hundreds of miles away, and they are in Albuquerque, Denver, Flagstaff, and Phoenix.”

Mistreatment

“Even for our current veterans who are returning, I’m an Iraqi War veteran, we still lack the resources to help veterans with mental health,” Benally said. “Our general health care, we have to travel vast distances.”

“As veterans, we cannot go to the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration and ask them to help us with the VA claims,” Benally said. “They are not trained to assist us in that matter, and we have to utilize the state of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and other nonprofit organizations to help us with the VA claims.”

Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton joined the parade and spoke about the importance of supporting Vietnam veterans. She said Vietnam veterans who served the country returned home only to be mistreated.

“Many of them were not welcomed back to their communities,” Charles-Newton said. “They were not able to talk about what they saw out there or what they experienced. It wasn’t until years later that our Vietnam veterans were recognized.”

“These kinds of events are very important to let our veterans know that we appreciate what they have done for this country and for the Navajo Nation,” she said. “Our Navajo people, we have a very high number of young men and women who sign up for the military, and we don’t have to be asked to sign up.”

Charles-Newton said to be a warrior is a traditional way of life and to be part of that society is an honor.

“Native Americans across the United States sign up in high numbers, and it’s time that we recognize that,” she said.

Charles-Newton would like to provide the Vietnam veterans the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

“We should start fundraising so that many of our Vietnam veterans could have the chance to go to Washington, D.C., to see the wall,” she said, “because many of our Navajo veterans can’t afford to do that.

“What I would like to do is a whole Navajo Nation campaign, to ask people to donate to send our veterans to D.C. At least every other year, so they can see that wall for themselves,” she added.

“It’s really sad,” she said. “I had a veteran, before he passed away, said to me, I never got to see Washington, D.C., and I know that is a part of the reason I fought but I never got to see.”

She added, “It broke my heart; how many of our veterans fought for this country and never been to the capital? That is the place where the decision to send them to war was made, and they have never been there. That is something I would like to start working on.”

Supporting veterans

Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, an avid supporter of veterans, would like to see the Nation more active in supporting veterans.

“When they came back home, there was not much respect for the Vietnam veterans,” she said. “There was no counseling available, so they suffered in silence for decades, their spouses and families.

“When we talk to veterans, they talk about how they have lost their friends to the streets, how many unsheltered relatives have served our country and what kind of support we can give them,” she said,

“I think it’s important that we continue to show up, so they know that leadership is hearing their concerns directly and advocate for them,” she said. “That’s what we want to do as delegates and community leadership.”

Michael Warren, commander of the Hogback Chapter Veterans Organization and a Vietnam veteran, spoke about the importance of raising awareness for veterans and the distrust in the Navajo Nation government.

“All our resolutions, all our requests that go to Window Rock are turned away,” he said, “They are vetoed by our president, and we turn to our executive director, and he shuts down everything. We don’t get the help we are supposed to.”

“When I got back, we were nobodies, just nobodies, a nobody,” he said, “These younger veterans coming back, they are talked about, but they are not getting the support.

Warren added, “I advocate for the veterans who try to get help. We take care of our older veterans, even if they can’t make it, we found the resources for those in need of help. We just want to be recognized.”

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