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Log inHealing another wound of war
Healing another wound of war
by Outspoken on Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:26 am
Healing another wound of war
A South Portland man achieves closure and learns of others' needs by visiting the Vietnamese village where his brother died 40 years earlier
By TREVOR MAXWELL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Steve Roberts went to Vietnam last month seeking closure for the death of his brother, who was killed in the war there 40 years earlier.
After more than a week in the country -- meeting people, touring the countryside and seeing the remaining legacy of war -- Roberts said he returned to Maine with the closure he sought, and much more.
"One thing that really touched me was meeting this one 12- year-old boy," Roberts said. The boy's deformities were attributed to his parents' exposure to Agent Orange, one of the poisonous chemicals used by the United States to defoliate the jungle during the Vietnam War.
"It really brought home a lot of the suffering," Roberts said. "Right from the get-go, it was really emotional. I could just feel some spiritual things going on."
His brother, John Wayne Roberts, was an 18-year-old Marine when he left to fight in Vietnam in the summer of 1967.
He was killed in action a few months later, one of eight servicemen from the same South Portland High School class to die in the war. His body was returned to Maine and was buried in South Portland's Calvary Cemetery. The city named a road near the Maine Mall after him.
Steve Roberts was 16 when his brother was killed. He also enlisted in the Marines. Although he volunteered three times to go to Vietnam, the Marines sent him to Cuba and the Panama Canal instead because he was an only surviving son.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=163941&ac=PHnws
Photos courtesy of Steve Roberts
A South Portland man achieves closure and learns of others' needs by visiting the Vietnamese village where his brother died 40 years earlier
By TREVOR MAXWELL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Steve Roberts went to Vietnam last month seeking closure for the death of his brother, who was killed in the war there 40 years earlier.
After more than a week in the country -- meeting people, touring the countryside and seeing the remaining legacy of war -- Roberts said he returned to Maine with the closure he sought, and much more.
"One thing that really touched me was meeting this one 12- year-old boy," Roberts said. The boy's deformities were attributed to his parents' exposure to Agent Orange, one of the poisonous chemicals used by the United States to defoliate the jungle during the Vietnam War.
"It really brought home a lot of the suffering," Roberts said. "Right from the get-go, it was really emotional. I could just feel some spiritual things going on."
His brother, John Wayne Roberts, was an 18-year-old Marine when he left to fight in Vietnam in the summer of 1967.
He was killed in action a few months later, one of eight servicemen from the same South Portland High School class to die in the war. His body was returned to Maine and was buried in South Portland's Calvary Cemetery. The city named a road near the Maine Mall after him.
Steve Roberts was 16 when his brother was killed. He also enlisted in the Marines. Although he volunteered three times to go to Vietnam, the Marines sent him to Cuba and the Panama Canal instead because he was an only surviving son.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=163941&ac=PHnws
Photos courtesy of Steve Roberts
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
