REMEMBER THE HEROES
Vietnam War veteran from McDowell reflects on his experience, meaning of Veterans Day
Vietnam War veteran Larry Gilliand stands next to the McDowell County Veterans Memorial at the Senior Center. On the memorial are the names of his friends and family members who gave their lives in that long and bloody conflict.
Larry Gilliand would end up serving two tours of duty in Vietnam starting in December 1967 and lasting through 1968 and half of 1969. He returned to the United States in July 1969.
This photo shows Larry Gilliand during his time in the Vietnam War.
Larry Gilliand looks at a map of North Vietnam from 1968 and points to the many places where he fought.
For Larry Gilliand, Veterans Day is a day to remember the heroes who sacrificed for our freedoms.
"I think they should thank the veterans every day for putting their lives on the line every day for us," Gilliand said.
Gilliand, who lives in Nebo, knows very well what he is speaking about. A native son of McDowell County, he was just 19 when he enlisted in the Army during the summer of 1967.
He volunteered to go to Vietnam, knowing he would be eventually drafted anyway. "We were poor boys," he said. "Of course, they were going to draft us."
He and his best friend, Jerry Greene, had known each other since they were students in the first grade at Marion Elementary School. After they left school, the two young men lost touch with each other but got reconnected in 1966. Together, they decided to join the Army.
"(Greene) said, 'We ought to join because we're probably going to be drafted.' My buddy told me there's a place called Vietnam and I never even heard of it," Gilliand said. "They were fighting for their freedom. … We talked to the recruiter, and I said, 'I'll join, if I can go to that place and fight for those people's freedom.' We would've been sent anyway."
Greene said he arrived in country in December 1967 and was immediately embroiled in the fighting. "I saw my first casualties the night we arrived in Vietnam," he said.
He would end up serving two tours of duty in Vietnam starting in December 1967 and lasting through 1968 and half of 1969. He returned to the United States in July 1969.
He fought in the Tet Offensive, which was a massive, coordinated series of surprise attacks launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in late January 1968. The enemy forces struck more than 100 cities and military targets across South Vietnam. Gilliand said he and his fellow soldiers were near Khe Sanh and found themselves surrounded by seven battalions of the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong.
During his time in Vietnam, Gilliand worked as a combat engineer clearing the jungles for the infantry. "We landed first and cut places out for the others to land the choppers," he said.
In November 1968, he earned the Bronze Star for saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.
Gilliand was at numerous places in Vietnam during the war. He earned the rank of specialist E-5.
Gilliand returned home from his time in the war, but his best friend, Jerry Greene, did not.
After he came back to the United States, Gilliand said he was assigned to Washington, D.C., where his duty was to protect the White House from the rioting in the streets. He later was sent to Fort Gordon in Georgia. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1971.
Upon returning to McDowell County, Gilliand went to McDowell Technical College and studied to become an electrician. He also worked at Old Fort Finishing plant for about eight years.
At one time, he was employed at Rexnord, where he became good friends with another Vietnam War veteran. This man had been a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army and their shared experiences helped them cope with their memories of that conflict. Gilliand also worked for the American General Life Insurance Co.
Now at age 78, Gilliand is still haunted by the memories of his Vietnam experience.
He looks at the McDowell County Veterans Memorial and sees the names of friends and family members who gave their lives in that long and bloody conflict.
They include his cousin Jerry Gilliand and his childhood best friend Jerry Greene, who enlisted along with him. There is his neighbor, Hugh Edward Revis, a friend's brother, Ray Ledford, and another childhood friend, Charles Revis, also listed among the dead from McDowell County during the Vietnam War.
Gilliand suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has flashbacks of what happened to him more than 55 years ago.
"I never was off for Veterans Day," he said. "I had to work. Veterans Day to me, it's like every day. I think of my friends. I think of my buddies on the wall, my brothers and sisters who died."
He remembers the nurses who saved his life three times during the war, only for them to become casualties in the fighting.
"I don't like people saying that heroes are ballplayers," he said. "The heroes are on that wall. I'm not a hero."
Gilliand said he could have gotten the Purple Heart medal, but he thought it was for others who did more than he did to deserve it.
In 2015, Gilliand unexpectedly found a picture of him in the pages of AARP's magazine.
He opened his copy of the April/ May 2015 AARP magazine and found a photo of him during his time in the Vietnam War. It was an image he had not sent in to the publication. Gilliand believed the image was taken during the early part of his first tour of Vietnam because of a few indicators in the photo. The image, he thinks, was taken near An Hoa, where his company had cleared jungle for the infantry, according to a 2015 story by The McDowell News.
To cope with his memories, Gilliand has turned to creative writing.
He's written battlefield poems and a 1,000-page book about his experiences.
The title of his book is "My Vietnam: Destiny, Fate, Love and War." He said he is working with a company to get it published.
Gilliand said he will always be haunted by his Vietnam experience. He credits his family for helping him cope.
"I survived it, even though we don't survive it," he said. "We live it every day, and it's still a casualty of war, I guess. Cause living the war every day, it never ends. And the Vietnam War will never end until the last one of us is gone. World War II veterans lived with theirs and fought it. I've lived with mine, and I fought it. With help from my wife, my children and my grandson, I make it."
"That's just the way it is. Every day you live the war, you fight it every night, every day. Somebody once asked me, 'You ever been back to Vietnam?' I said, 'Yeah, every day and every night I go.'"
