2005 Newsletter

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From The Point

By President/Founder, George Montgomery

Certainly this past summer and fall have been eventful for everyone with deserved vacations, special events, family, and of course the weather. For FBE the continuing effort to seek out knowledge, project supporters and to further our mission to inform, educate and honor has been moving forward. Opportunities for FBE have been many, and we fully intend to take advantage of these possibilities mentioned throughout our newsletter to further our project. Compared to past prominent and ongoing history projects we have done a lot with very little time and funds. The long overdue WWII memorial took 17 years to become a reality. The US Army has no museum as yet, but the Army Museum Foundation was formed 21 years ago.

For any project there are many obstacles to overcome and tremendous competition for available funding. The key is informing and showing people and organizations why and how they can benefit by giving support in some manner.

No generals, national politicians or celebrities have come on board, but the support from our comrades and citizens are our strength and a major reason for completing our mission. Over 40 million people—a whole generation—was affected by the Vietnam War.

As you read the articles we hope it will show that our dedication and commitment are as strong and steadfast as ever. All of our members feel fortunate to have met so many knowledgeable and supportive individuals this year. We appreciate those of you who have stood with us in our efforts during 2004. Especially all the ceremonies at "The Wall" located on the grounds of the James E. Van Zandt, VA Medical Center.

We thank you and are grateful for all that has been done on our behalf to keep the vision of project FBE advancing. We hope that you will continue supporting this important Vietnam War History Center in order to teach present and future generations. Never underestimate the power of group effort.

Mail in Your Membership Today and help bring the vision of Fire Base Eagle to life. All donations are tax-exempt.

It is the right and duty of all of us to pass on what we experienced and have lived through. Let's respect all who have gone before and since us. It's our time to take the point for honor and remembrance. Welcome home!

We look forward to keeping the friends of FBE updated on the development of this historic project. With each new membership you will receive our membership card and decal. For additional information, stop by the internet at www.firebaseeagle.org. For a donation of $24 you can be a friend of Fire Base Eagle up to December 31, 2005. Join today!

Additional contributions of any size can be made. Anyone can become a member and your donation is tax exempt. Your help is needed in making the vision of a National Vietnam History War Center in honoring Vietnam veterans.

Fire Base Eagle is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization. The official registration and financial information may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

Honorary chair

Fire Base Eagle, along with the project consulting firm, A.L. Brourman and Associates of Pittsburgh, PA, are in a national search to locate an Honorary Chair to advance our project. It is extremely crucial to find an influential, knowledgeable and prominent individual to be the Honorary Chair for the building of the Fire Base Eagle Vietnam War History Center. Bob Hope proudly honored the Vietnam Veterans as Honorary Chair of "The Wall That Heals" Memorial, and Tom Hanks spearheaded the WWII Memorial. We need a "Bob Hope," "Tom Hanks" or "You" to be our Honorary Chair for this Historical Center.

Fire base Eagle Receives $5,000 Grant

We wish to thank our local State Representative, Richard A. Geist for making it possible in obtaining a DCED Grant from the State of Pennsylvania for the amount of $5,000.00. This is the fourth year that we have received a DCED Grant through his office. Fire Base Eagle will now use this funding for the development of our educational outreach programs. Representative Geist, has always been a strong advocate and voice for Fire Base Eagle. We are moving forward because of your leadership, support, and dedication to building this historical Center.

Memorable and Interesting

The two words a reporter from Thunder Press used to describe the Fire Base Eagle exhibit at the Rev & Roll Motorcycle Expo in Monroeville, Pa, April 16-18, 2004. Thanks to our partnership with Rolling Thunder of PA, we were able to set up our display in the midst of a fabulous motorcycle event! Special thanks to Thunder Press magazine for including us in the report on the Rev & Roll Expo. The June 2004 edition of Thunder Press included a photo of Mr. Stan Snyder and Chaplain Paul Johnson, FBE board members, who were the exhibit presenters for the weekend show.

As reported in Thunder Press. FBE will present a unique approach to education pertaining to the Vietnam war. Not only will there be artifacts and displays in the History Center, but a full-scale replica fire base and other outdoor displays covering approximately 29 acres.

Photos, artifacts and architectural renderings of the proposed History Center were included in the exhibit. However, Chaplain Johnson and Stan Snyder explained to all visitors the importance placed on documenting original stories from those who served in Vietnam. "We have an opportunity to capture on audio and video the story of Vietnam from everyone willing to be interviewed", said Stan. "We hope visitors to the center will take the time to be interviewed and have their stories placed in the archives!", Chaplain Johnson said. As a matter of fact FBE is ready now to interview vets who wish to tell their story. Contact us 814-940-1899.

Our visit to Rev & Roll proved to be a very worthwhile venture! We received many interesting inquiries and made some valuable contacts! And as Paul Harvey says, "Stand by for news"!

FBE members are always available to share this project with you or your group. We have visited schools, social clubs and motorcycle events! Anywhere people gather we are willing to go! So give us a call! Better yet, come on board! Membership is only $24.00 a year and opened to the publicSyou do not need to be a veteran. Believe me, once this project is constructed, and you complete your "Tour of duty" at FBE; you too will say," What a Memorable and Interesting place!"

Treasurer Asks That You Pay Your Dues Early

I am John Gority, your Treasurer. I served in Vietnam in 1967 where I was severely wounded and was subsequently retired from the Army. I have been serving as your Fire Base Eagle Treasurer since 1999.

We are moving into a new year and we need your help. With this newsletter you are receiving the 2005 dues renewal form. Our membership year runs from January 1st to December 31st of each year. We are asking you to pay your 2005 dues as soon as possible.

I am making this personal appeal because Fire Base Eagle needs you and your support to ensure our vision that a Vietnam War History Center in Altoona will come to fruition in the near future. What I need from you is to pay your dues early. Your dues are used to pay for office supplies, the printing of this newsletter and our education programs. Also, they pay for our continued research and pursuit of corporations to leads us to the monies for the completion of the War History Center.

Thank you for your continued support of Fire Base Eagle Vietnam War History Center. If you would like to get involved with the project and live locally, please watch the newspapers for our fundraiser dances and other events held throughout the year. Don't forget to past this information on to friends, family businesses, organizations and especially other Vietnam Veterans.

Viet Cong Tunnel Complex

Fire Base Eagle is planning to build a full-size tunnel complex as one of its outside exhibits at the Vietnam War History Center. The tunnel complex will show how the Viet Cong used their tunneling skills to hide from their enemies. The complex will be accessible to visitors who want to crawl through and explore the living conditions for the VC. For those who don't wish to physically explore the complex, portions of the complex will be visible through 6" thick plexiglass (similar to an ant farm see-through kit). The complex design will be based on consultation with US Army and US Marine Corps tunnel "Rat" - the men who went down into the tunnels to capture or kill Viet Cong troops.

Sleeping rooms, hospitals, dinning areas, armorys, air shafts and underground water access shafts will be visible for you to explore. These complexes were designed to take direct bomb hits and not collapse.

The K-9 German shepard dogs were the reasons men of our armed services were able to find these complexes; K-9 dogs were trained to smell the fish that the Viet Cong ate with their rice.

Rolling Thunder Rides To “The Wall”

On July 15, 2004 Rolling Thunder returned to visit "The Wall That Heals." All service men and women were honored for their service to their country on the grounds of the James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center the permanent location of "The Wall".

Chapter Members of Rolling Thunder laying wreaths at "The Wall That Heals" honoring their fallen brothers and sisters.

Mr. Joseph D. Douglass, Jr., author, and guest speaker presented the audience to the story behind his book "Betrayed." "Betrayed" is the story of war crimes and atrocities as told by a top Communist official who monitored much of the operation. Mr. Douglass spoke about the POW/MIAs and his inside view of the plans behind their capture and use as guinea pigs. He informed us through his speech, about what our leaders knew, the people who made the decision to abandon the American captives, and the extensive efforts that were later taken to hide what had been done. "Betrayed" was written in a unique effort to begin penetrating the Communists secrets that were never supposed to see the light of day.

Jounalist Advises FBE in Pursuit of Museum

A well-knowned journalist, Joe Galloway, after meeting with Fire Base Eagle, who were looking for help in locating a celebrity spokesman to raise money for its' proposed Vietnam History Center, says Fire Base Eagle should concentrate first on quieter fund raising.

Getting a celebrity to represent its cause should be the last step in a fund raising campaign, said Joe Galloway, who co-wrote the book that was the basis for the Vietnam War movie: "We Were Soldiers" and we recently met in Washington, D.C., with Fire Base Eagle members.

For now, the group should try for major donations from national organizations, or better yet, area millionaires, to build a financial base, he said.

Only when it has such major funding for its multi-million project should it try to persuade a celebrity to represent a national campaign targeting individuals for small amounts, he said.

Fire Base Eagle sought out Galloway after receiving a feasibility study report stressing "the need to enlist truly outstanding and nationally recognizable leadership to be the public face of the projectS[as] the first order of business" even while beginning to seek major donations.

Although something of a celebrity himself, Galloway lacks the time to serve on a board for the proposed center because he works the equivalent of "four full-time jobs" and already serves on the board of two military museums.

Nevertheless, he'll try to help the Altoona base group "unofficially" and wishes it well, he said.

In his frequent travels, he encounters many influential business people, and he has begun to pass along the names of those who might help Fire Base Eagle, group president George Montgomery said.

Those influential people are not celebrities, not candidates to become the group's national advocate, Montgomery said, but they could add weight to the enterprise and provide a conduit for funding from their companies.

Still, despite Galloway's recommended priority shift, the group will continue seeking a celebrity advocate.

A celebrity advocate would help make the task easier and give the whole enterprise more credibility on every level, he said. The advocate need not be in the first rank of fame, but the group would prefer a prior veterans connections.

An actor who has have played a military role in a well-known movie and a national beauty pageant winner whose father is a disable veteran are possibilities, he said.

The Fire Base Eagle members are "salt of the earth," former enlisted men who want to tell the story of their war and who have a unique approach, Galloway said.

He doesn't know any other military museum initiative originating from the level of such soldiers: working class, mostly draftees, who did their duty and lost a lot of friends and who don't want their part in history to vanish, he said, the "grunt" level, Fire Base members would say.

Montgomery, expected Galloway to be "above our head" but found him instead to be down to earth.

"He really connected with us," Montgomery said. I think we did with him."

Galloway and Montgomery experienced the war in the same area of Vietnam, Montgomery said. The United States would benefit from the kind of museum proposed by Fire Base Eagle, having no other devoted entirely to explaining the Vietnam combat experience, as far as he knows, Galloway said.

The museum would have a natural constituency of perhaps 20 million people, the number he has heard who have some direct connection with the 50,000 plus American soldiers who died in the war, he said.

Yet Fire Base Eagle faces formidable fund raising competition, with five other military museum projects trying to raise between $70 million and $120 million each, he said: the Army Museum at Fort Belvoir, VA; the US Army Military History Institute at Carlisle, PA; the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, GA; the Museum of American History at Manassas, VA; and the D-Day Museum expansion in New Orleans.

"It's a tough environment," he said.

There are also a group of former helicopter pilots who hope to create a National Vietnam War Museum at Mineral Wells, TX, according to information on the group's web site. Still, hearing about the competition didn't faze the Fire Base Eagle members, Galloway said. "[They] don't know about guitting," he said. "They seem dogged."

Altoona may be as good as a place as any, as it is within easy driving distance of Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, he said. "Those guys may just pull it off." he said.

"I don't want to be the one to tell them they can't." In keeping with a recommendation of the funding feasibility study, the group also will seek $20,000.00 to $25,000.00 by the end of this year, some through grants, for a marketing study to show the center could draw enough people to justify being built.

4th Annual “Run to the Wall” 2004

On June 12, 2004 it was our pleasure again for the community and FBE to welcomed the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club of PA, Chapter T, to the "The Wall That Heals." The riders made the trip to "The Wall" on a beautiful, sunny day. The members of VVMC presented a program and wreath laying ceremony honoring their fallen comrades and all veterans who gave their lives in defending our nation.

This year a $2,100 donation from VVMC of PA was presented to FBE. The members of FBE gratefully accepted the donation that will help sustain our vision.

Our VVMC of PA friends and their members are to be commended for their dedication to our vision and to the fallen comrades by honoring their memory.

After the ceremony Chapter T invited all who were present to follow them to their club for refreshments and food.

Armed Forces Day & Memorial Day Honored

An Armed Forces Day Celebration was held on May 15th, 2004, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, at "The Wall That Heals." All service men and women were honored for their service to their country on the grounds of the James E. Van Zandt Medical Center, in Altoona.

Col. John A. Marx, US Army, Retired was the keynote speaker. A passionate and educational speech talking about the humanity of the people he served with who gave their lives for freedom, and those who wear proudly the uniform of our armed forces. He also informed the audience of the history of this special observance 54 years ago today.

He spoke to us on the subject "that all American service personnel aspire to the ideal of living in peace." The best hope for tranquil relations between nations and between peoples was summed up in the words by David Eisenhower: "Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin." Martin Luther King echoed the same sentiment when he spoke these words: "True Peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of Justice." That is the ideal exemplified by those who wear the uniform. And that is the same ideal that should be embraced by every American, said Col. Marx.

A candlelight ceremony was held on Memorial Day at 8:30 pm for a means of recognizing all soldiers past, present, and the future. The names of those who lost their lives from Blair County during WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afganistanand Iraq Wars were read prior to the ceremony.

James E. Soliday, Commander, Medical Service Corps, US Navy, Retired, presented a breath taking speech on the dedication of our service men defending our country in the past and present day Iraq. The importance of remembering Memorial Day and how this day must be honored that today and future generations will know the price of freedom. As he stated in his opening remarks, "Brave Americans have answered the call to preserve our freedom for over 200 years. And they will continue to do so. They are our comrades." "Fighting and dying has always been the work of the young. As we gather here, the war in Iraq is nearing the end and young Americans have again won it… and they did it like Americans of old.

The families of the nine men killed in Iraq in our local area were invited to the ceremony to lay wreaths provided by the Armed Forces Day Committee. A Sea Cadet escorted each family and their friends to place wreaths for those who gave their lives for our country in this war and all wars past. A final tribute of taps and the playing of "Amazing Grace" by bagpiper, Sean Gority, ended a very moving ceremony. Let us never forget they are our comrades.

It is up to us to make sure the legacy of our nation's fallen is passed on from this generation to the next and then on to all generations beyond. We must ensure that the youth of today and tomorrow have an awareness and understanding of whom it is they should honor and exactly why they should honor them. We who survive these heroes must always remember the price they paid and that freedom, indeed, is not free.

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