Grapeland Vietnam Vet Gets Treated To Tour of Capital
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – Several times a year, Honor Flights Austin invites veterans from the surrounding counties on an all-expense-paid trip to the nation’s capital to thank them for their service. Recently, Vietnam veteran and Grapeland native Suvella Walker was able to take that flight with some of his former comrades-in-arms.
When the young soldiers returned home from Vietnam, there were no ticker tape parades and singing crowds. Many were quickly forgotten or met by protestors calling them everything but heroes. Whatever one thinks about that conflict, the young men traipsing through the jungles had no part in starting it, deciding how to fight it or how the war ended.
Recently, many groups, including the U.S. government, have recognized this oversight and tried to make things right with those men, many now in their ’70’s.
It was Walker’s daughter who told him about the trips and he finally decided to look into it and see what exactly an ‘honor flight’ entailed.
Born and raised in Grapeland, Walker graduated high school in 1968 and went to work for Vulcraft. A year later, he found himself in basic training in Louisiana – and a ticket to Vietnam with the famous First Infantry Division, known as the ‘Big Red One.’
“I was in the infantry – a foot-pounder or bush-beater,” Walker recalled. “I was twenty when I got sent to Vietnam, but I wasn’t afraid. I guess I was too crazy then to really be thinking about that.”
Spending 1969-1970 in Vietnam and then returning home, Walker was hurt by the reaction he received from his fellow citizens.
“When the Vietnam veterans came home, they were really treated bad. ‘Baby killers’ and all that kind of stuff. People felt like we didn’t win the war, which was out of our hands since we just did what we were told. They never did welcome us home like they should have,” Walker remembered.
Walker went on with life back in Grapeland after the war, taking his old job back at Vulcraft and working there for 45 years.
The honor flights were created as a way to repay those veterans and make up for the welcome many never received all those years ago. Walker was accepted and traveled to Austin to take the flight last Friday, March 31. He said the group, made up of all volunteers, rolled out the red carpet and they didn’t ask him to spend “one quarter” the whole trip.
Walker was part of a group of 33 veterans on the flight, which included chartered busses, accommodation in Washington D.C. and fire engines drenching the plane in their honor before takeoff.
“I was just uplifted,” Walker said. “It’s hard to explain – these guys together – we chatted and told a lot old stories – everybody had a chance to go tell some Vietnam stories.”
The group was taken on a special tour which included the Vietnam Wall, the tomb of the unknown solider and Audie Murphy’s grave. When they returned, they got the real surprise of the trip.
“When we got back to Austin, people were welcoming us back home – just like we were coming home from Vietnam. The people from the honor flight had some family members write us a letter and on the way back we had Mail Call just like in Vietnam,” Walker said. “We sat down, read the letters from our loved ones and that was so touching.”
All veterans from the Second World War, Korean and Vietnam Wars are invited. The group is always looking for new passengers, volunteers and generous people to donate. For Walker and his fellow vets on last week’s flight, it was like the country had made good on the disrespect the men felt coming home back then.
“I don’t have to feel bad anymore,” Walker said. “I feel welcome now. Very welcome, to know someone thought that much of us and organized these flights. It’s a great thing.”
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
