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Service ‘a way of life’ for military veterans

Van Zandt VA Medical Center hosts annual Veterans Day event

By William Kibler 5 min read

Members of the Juniata Gap Student Council and the Kindness Club placed their hands over their hearts for the National Anthem and later sang "God Bless America" as they took their turn honoring veterans Tuesday at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center.

The Veterans Day service, held outside the medical center in the shadow of the center's giant American Flag, was attended by staff, patients, residents and families, who, along with the students, also stopped by to see a display of Vietnam-era artifacts owned by Tom Gray of East Freedom.

Gray served in the Army from 1980 to 2012, and said he was always interested in the military "since I was 14 years old," despite his father hoping he'd be interested in baseball instead.

For Tuesday's display, Gray pulled out his UH-1 Huey helicopter and his 1977 military Jeep, which boasts just 1,500 original miles.

The display drew a long line of visitors, including Osceola Mills residents Gerald and Beverly Bush, who said they found time between medical center appointments to take in the ceremony and Gray's collection.

Gerald served in the Army in Vietnam and he said seeing Gray's bazooka and other artillery brought back memories of his service.

The couple, who belong to the VFW Post 5020 in Osceola Mills, said they usually make it to at least one of the medical center's annual observances -- Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

They'll take part in their Post's Veterans Day service today at 10:55 a.m. -- the time set to specifically place the flag raising at 11 a.m. -- the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Service 'a way of life'

The service's keynote speaker, hospital emergency management coordinator and veteran Jon Chapman, expressed pride that through nine generations of the Chapman family's living in what is now the U.S., all but one of the men in his direct line on his father's side were in the military -- and the single exception was deemed to have a civilian job too important to abandon.

Throughout his speech, Chapman spoke of military service being "a way of life," and of the wounds that some service members carry, both obvious and hidden; and of the bond of shared commitment that ties all veterans together.

Chapman also noted that some veterans serve in peacetime and some in wartime, but it was only afterward in conversation that the significance of that distinction in his own case became clear.

Chapman was a Marine between 1987-90, and he served in a helicopter squadron, according to master of ceremonies John Clay, who introduced Chapman.

People with some knowledge of recent history might recognize that 1990 was the year that the seven-month-long first Iraq War began.

That war included lots of Chapman's fellow Marines, Chapman said after his speech.

But it didn't him: Chapman was injured in a service accident, and received a medical discharge before the start of hostilities on Aug. 2, 1990.

After the war started, all the friends he had worked with were gone, he said.

"And there I was, at home, going to college," he said.

He didn't like it.

"I felt I should be there," he said. There was even "a little bit of shame."

Even now, 36 years later, he struggles with it.

"It's hard to describe," he said. "It does weigh heavy on me."

The feeling when it happened was actually "more about the (loss of) camaraderie," he said. "Your friends are with you, and now you're not with them," he said. "You feel you should be."

That feeling of having missed out doesn't mean he would have escaped fear and anxiety, if he had gone, he said.

"Anyone who says (they're not afraid) is not being honest," he said.

He didn't go, however, and it's something he just had to make peace with, he said.

A critical factor that has helped him make such peace is his family, which includes two children and now two grandchildren.

He met his kids' mother at college, and if he'd gone to war, that meeting wouldn't have taken place, and those children and their children would not exist.

"There's a comfort in that," he said. "A peace in that."

If he'd gone to war, he still would probably have had children and grandchildren by now, he said.

"But not the ones I have," he said.

Generations of service

Here is his military lineage, which includes others who served in peacetime and some who served in war:

-- Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather: served in the Massachusetts State Militia in the early 1700s;

-- Great-great-great-great-grandfather Nathaniel Chapman: fought at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill during the American Revolution;

-- Great-great-great-grandfather Nathaniel Chapman: served during peacetime in Ohio;

-- Great-great-grandfather: also served during peacetime in Ohio;

-- Great-grandfather: served in the Civil War on the Union side;

-- Father Ronald Chapman: served in Thailand during the Vietnam War;

-- Jon: a Marine who served in the Mediterranean, Panama and Colombia;

-- Jon's son Nick Chapman, an Army pilot of Apache helicopters.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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