A five-day event is being planned for late August in north-central Iowa which aims to serve as a thank you to thousands of Vietnam veterans who will be coming in from across the country. Operation L-Z (or, Landing Zone) will take place in Forest City on August 26th through the 30th. One organizer, Jack Caputo, says he hopes this will give Vietnam veterans the welcome home they likely never got.

He says it’s truly going to be a welcome home in an attempt to give some closure to veterans, not only from Vietnam, but from Korea, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. Any veteran is welcome to attend. Caputo says they are trying to make the event family-friendly so veterans can have the proper recognition and be more open with their families about their experiences.

He says they’ve tried to make it so they can bring their family and not re-live their experiences but re-invigorate them and allow them to open up to their family. Saturday August 29th will be the main day for the event and will feature the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall as well as Navy Lieutenant Commander Larry Spencer of Des Moines, who was a prisoner of war for seven years at the so-called Hanoi Hilton. Caputo says there will also be several demonstrations and a number of helicopters from the Vietnam War-era that people will be able to see and ride in.

There will be two Hueys, a Cobra, and hopefully a Chinook on site. He says those were the helicopters that soldiers rode in when going to their landing zones, whether it was going to be a “hot zone” where they expected to take fire or a “cold zone” where they didn’t. Caputo says students from area high school are being invited so they’ll have a chance to learn more about the Vietnam War on the Thursday and Friday of the event.

He says students will come in and see the wall and hear from veterans about their experiences. The final plans for the event were announced Thursday, which marked the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to communist forces and an end to the Vietnam War. Caputo says the August event will draw several thousand veterans from all over the country.

He says they’ve had calls from a number of states about the event, with a number of platoon and squad reunions being planned for that weekend. They are guessing between five- and eight-thousand Vietnam veterans will be attending the event with about 25-thousand people in total attending on Saturday. For more details about the event, you can head to the website operationlz.com

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Western Community College will offer lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students a new community housing option this fall. The Daily Nonpareil reports that the college has set aside a cluster of about 40 suite-style apartments to create an optional community-style living environment for LGBT students, with a focus on transgender and intersex individuals. According to Director of Student Life Liz Luiken, the school initially set aside 18 units for gender-inclusive housing in early April, but interest quickly grew the plans to two complete floors.

Luiken said about 40 students have already expressed an interest in the new Pride Q*mmunity cluster, with about 11 students already choosing the option on their housing applications. Other schools, such as the University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are planning to offer similar gender-inclusive housing options in the fall.

A rally of vintage military vehicles will be in Atlantic on May 16th. Steve Livengood, organizer of the “Badda-badda-bing-bang Rally” (Pronounced bah-duh bah-duh Bing Bang), says military vehicles and enthusiasts from all over will be coming to town on Armed Forces Day. Livengood says – as of May 1st – he anticipates 28 vehicles will be parked in the Atlantic Armory parking lot, including half-tracks, 10-jeeps and a motorcycle, to name a few.

Steve Livengood (right) talks with KJAN’s Jim Field about the rally.

Livengood is one of 16 Steel Soldiers members in Iowa (www.steelsoldiers.com). He volunteered to host the event in Atlantic, since there aren’t any rallies planned in the state. He says military vehicle collectors and enthusiasts love to show off their possessions and view others’ collections. As proof, several are coming from Des Moines, at least one will make the trip from Illinois, and a group based in Nebraska is planning on coming.

The event runs from 10-a.m. until 4-p.m., on the 16th, with the vehicles arriving the day before in preparation for the rally, and gathering at the American Legion Building. Livengood says the public can come to view the collection from 11-am until 3-pm., because of the influx of vehicles that will be moving around in the downtown area.

Rally participants will cruise the town beginning at 3:30-p.m. May 16th, with cannons signaling the start of the 5.6-mile cruise. There’s also a meal planned for the participants, as well as a scavenger hunt. For more information, go to www.atlanticiowa.com.

The Atlantic Police Department reports an Atlantic woman was arrested Thursday, on drug charges. 20-year old Leslie Paulsen was taken into custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Paulsen was booked into the Cass County Jail.

The Iowa Gold Star Museum unveiled its new Vietnam War exhibit Thursday, on the 40th anniversary of the end of the U-S involvement in the war.

Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-IA)

Former Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell flew helicopters in Vietnam during the war and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He talked about the feelings among soldiers as they watched the fall of Saigon and the war end.

“There was heavy thoughts and we found we were reflecting to start with on our comrades who had fallen in that conflict — that number was pretty large — and just wondered who makes the decisions about what was going on at times,” Boswell says. In remarks before the ribbon cutting for the exhibit, Boswell told the Vietnam veterans that they had never lost a battle, it was those back in Washington making the decisions who decided the fate of the U-S in the war. Boswell says the troops on the ground and in the air gave their best effort, but had to follow the orders from higher up.

“We’d be in a battle and we’d be getting the upper hand and we’d get called off because there was supposedly some border right below which we couldn’t see. It was frustrating,” according to Boswell. Boswell says the advent of television coverage of the war was part of the problem, as the commanding general in Vietnam, William Westmoreland, had a T-V camera over his shoulder all the time. He says he grew to understand some of those issue more after being elected to the U-S House and going to Washington, D-C.

“They could see what was going on every day. Now when the generals were conducting what was going on in World War Two and before that, and then in Korea, why it was the matter of waiting for a message to get back and forth,” Boswell says. “But every morning (during the Vietnam War) the White House, the Pentagon, they were getting briefed right then that day. I would guess there was a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking took place.” Boswell talked about what it was like to be involved in the war.

“There’s hours of boredom interrupted by moments of stark terror,” Boswell says. “There was always shooting going on, it was very intense. You were always relieved when that moment was over with.” M

The exhibit at the Gold Start Museum includes a helicopter like the one Boswell flew in Vietnam. It also has displays of weapons that Booker recognized as the ones he trained on and then used once he got to Vietnam. The Gold Star Museum at Camp Dodge near Johnston is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a-m until 4:30 p-m and Saturday from 10:00 a-m until 4 p-m. It is free to the public.

(Radio Iowa)