Paul and Loly, 1967.By Paul Tellez
Paul and Loly, 1967.(This year, 2015, is noteworthy for many wartime anniversaries – Victory in Europe in May, Waterloo in June, Victory in Japan in September. But it also recalls 1975 and the United States pull-out of Vietnam, a 10,000 day war that began in earnest in March, 1965. One of our assistant pastors, Paul Tellez, served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967 and has an interesting story to tell).
In 1965 I was drafted and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky with a unit of the 101st Airborne Division. When I was told that our unit would be sent to Vietnam in 1966 I had no idea where it even was.
So the army sent us on jets to Fort Lewis, Washington where we were soon billeted in a huge troopship in Tacoma for shipment to the Pacific. The next morning the orderlies woke us up to tell us to get on deck and see the show.
We looked down and could see brass bands, news media, balloons, flags and a large number of cheering people full of enthusiasm. We were getting a hero’s sendoff because the First Army Division (the Big Red One of World War Two fame), the 4th Infantry Division and the 9th Infantry from Germany were also being sent to Vietnam. Everyone thought that would set everything straight at last. The United States had been seriously involved since marines went to Da Nang in March, 1965 but now everyone figured the jig was up.
This would show the Communists who was boss.
“The war will be over and we’ll come back as heroes,” everyone thought. Public opinion was on our side – and how!
Paul as member of a unit of the 101st Airborne.But we all know what happened next. By 1967 public opinion had totally changed. I was one of those who walked back through Los Angeles Airport in 1967 rejected and despised. We could feel it. The media were calling us baby killers and worse. We as an army felt like we had been abandoned in the field.
The next day when I sat at home in East Los Angeles I decided I would never forgive this nation, the United States, for abandoning us.
And that, I thought, was that.
I settled in to life and getting married. My wife, Loly, had saved her wedding dress when I was first drafted and was (literally) dodging bullets in Vietnam. But our patience was rewarded on July 29, 1967 when “the Dress” came out of the closet and we exchanged vow. And so I settled into normal life with this resentment still very much present inside.
Then, in 1976 my wife and her family helped start a Spanish-speaking church in Pasadena, CA. and I got involved. Later in the 1980s the pastor called us men aside and gave us each a Scripture to expound for the Easter/Passover season. My text was Luke 23:34 and it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks.
Love's Labors Won: Loly's dress on July 29, 1967.Luke 23:34 is one of the seven words of the dying Jesus on the cross: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”
Just think of the scene. Jesus is hanging on the cross nailed there by people who hated him and he said, ”Father forgive them.” He was asking forgiveness for everyone and when I was reading that something touched me and I broke down. Here I was holding on to un-forgiveness against a whole nation but Jesus, He was also abandoned in the field by his friends and yet he still asked for their forgiveness.
I was resentful towards a nation but here was Jesus forgiving a whole world. That had to make me think and think I did, and began to change my approach. I learned all about forgiveness from Jesus Christ, that forgiveness is not an occasional act but a permanent attitude. I also learned that forgiveness is not a human act, it’s a godly act.
As Jesus hung on the cross in agony and pain he wasn’t thinking about himself and his feelings. He looked up to His Father and included us all in his prayer.
Loly and Paul on their wedding day in 1967.Remember Jesus entered Jerusalem just before his arrest and was hailed as a conquering King. Public opinion was with him at that point. But it changed again. In military terms, yes, he was abandoned in the field, the way many of us felt in Vietnam. Even his top lieutenant Simon Peter denounced him three times.
Once a conquering hero now he was a crucified redeemer taking all our sins upon himself. All of this came to mind when I read Luke 23:34 and hit home forcefully as I wrote the Scripture out.
Though the grace of God I was led to forgive. But many Vietnam vets still haven’t forgiven this nation. Forgiveness is hard. True deep down forgiveness is actually impossible without the help of God. We human beings get so twisted in our resentments that we’d rather hang onto it than take the road to forgiveness. It’s not so hard when you keep Jesus in the picture. Then the ice in your heart begins to break. One key is to remember Jesus’ suffering for us. The next time any of us have trouble forgiving, just remember Luke 23:34. And go forward from there.