Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is doctor Jack Hawkins. He's the chancellor of Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He also served as a US Marine Corps officer in the Vietnam War. That's where
he earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Today we'll discuss why doctor Hawkins became a Marine, his service in Vietnam during one of the most volatile parts of the war, both at home and abroad, some of the most harrowing moments of the war for him, and how his work in the academic world brought him full circle back to Vietnam. Jack Hawkins was born in Alabama in March of nineteen forty five, and he has called the
state home for most of his life. Hawkins says he learned hard work at a very early age.
Okay, I'm a native Alabamian, but the only time outside the state was during my Marine Corps service and born in Mobile, Alabama. Grew up in Alabama. I was one of four children, son of the son of the Great Depression my dad. I thought my mother was well educated because she graduated tenth grade. He graduated eighth grade, and so we learned at an early age what real work was. He would go into the woods of South Alabama and cut the trees and haul the logs, and when I
was very young, he invited me. I later learned in the Marine Corps that that was a command performance, and it made me appreciate hard work. It made me appreciate stewardship because we didn't waste money.
In addition to the work, I think he learned from his father. Hawkins also grew up in a community with a strong commitment to military service.
Early in my life, and I was born into the latter stages of World War Two, and so during the forties and throughout the fifties early sixties, almost every man that I knew either fought in World War Two or served during that period of time, or fought in Korea or but all were military, and so the military influence was deep. I didn't quite know that what people did other than cut trees and serve the country. So my attitude was shaped at an early point.
But in the Hawkins family, there wasn't just high respect for the military. There was a specific affinity for the US Marine Corps. Multiple generations of the family served in the Corps, and Hawkins vividly remembers when and why he wanted to be a marine.
Well, you know, when you you almost emulate what you admire. I think when my brother in law in nineteen fifty seven walked into my home as he was courting my sister and he was wearing that dress blue uniform, I fell in love with it, and so my eyes had focused on service. But just those who I respected most encouraged me to at least consider and so when I graduated high school, that was to be my course to be an enlisted marine. And I went to the recruiter.
He shared with me the difference in being a PFC and being a second lieutenant. And I said, well, how do you become a second lieutenant? And he said, where you go to college. Nobody in my college family had ever gone to college, and so that was rather a new concept for me, and I checked into that, decided I would take that challenge, and that's really what led me to become a freshman in nineteen sixty three. Immediately after the first semester, I joined what's known as the
Patoon Leaders Class Program Marine Corps. A lot of Marine officers come by that route, and for the next several years until I graduated, during the summers, I would go to Quantico, and so I was an enlisted man until I was commissioned in nineteen sixty seven, and so that
was my goal. It probably not only influenced me to go to college, but to do the best I could while I was there, because I knew the ramifications of not doing well, and so I proudly stepped into that position of being a second lieutenant in May of nineteen sixty seven.
As an enlisted man pursuing an officer's commission, Hawkins spent multiple summers in grueling training at Quantico, Virginia. He says those courses were not pleasant, but they were very important in shaping him into a leader of marines.
That was an experience most of us didn't want to do again. It was challenging. You would go between the freshman and sophomore year during the summer, you would go and uh and that's a hot period of time in Quatico, as you know. And we started with about sixty officer candidates in my platoon and about half of us finished at the end of the summer. And so it was
a grueling experience, but one that you know. They often say the hot of the fire, the stronger the still and either you'll be challenged and meet that challenge, or you'll succumb to it. And I was really proud because that shaped a lot of my future. As I'm sure every other successful candidate would say, the difficult part was knowing what we were going to have to do in the second summer between our junior and senior years. And when you go back knowing, you know, ignorance is bliss.
And so that first summer I didn't know exactly what to anticipate or expect, but I knew going back, and so that's that the second summer was more difficult, I think than the first, simply because you knew what was coming. But that too was a challenging experience, particularly a main
side in Quantico. You have where they train officers, you have what's called the hill trails, and the hill trails that was a right of departure and a right of passage because if you couldn't maneuver and make those hill trails, you probably didn't get that commission at the end of the experience. And so it was it was a challenging time physically, but it was also challenging mentally. The Marine
Corps does a great job of training you. And I also will never forget the words of the drill instructors. We had drill instructors all enlisted, and they would make it very clear to you that if you couldn't survive their training and at their hands, they didn't want you leading them later. And so the whole I think the part of the philosophy was to was to wash you out, as we would say back then, and you could drop
out or you could be washed out, you know. But I always felt coming out of the woods in South Alabama that it would have been a lot harder to come home a failure than to stay there and withstand what they were doing. And so but it was a wonderful, wonderful experience in my life because I reaped so many rewards. But if you asked me the question do you want to do it again? I would say no, thank you.
After graduating college in nineteen sixty seven, Hawkins faced several more months of intense training before deploying to Vietnam.
You know, if you went immediately after commissioning, just based on the first two summers of training. I don't think you would be nearly as prepared, but they prepared us over the next six months when we left the college and we graduated the basic school, and then they would send us to special schools. And then on April the fourth, nineteen sixty eight, I left Mobile, Alabama, en route to Vietnam.
Actually I left a couple of days early, but I left the United States out of the Travis Air Force Base in San Francisco on the fourth day of April of nineteen sixty eight, and away I went to Vietnam by way of Okinawa.
As Hawkins mentioned, he left for Vietnam on April fourth, nineteen sixty eight, the very day doctor Martin Luther King Junior was killed in Memphis. Days later, Hawkins was in Vietnam, and he says the climate, the politics, and the reality of war were all weighing heavily on his mind.
Well, when we got off the plane in Dunag, we had been in Okinawa a couple of days in preparation for going into country. We arrived in dnae Uh in early April, and I stepped off the plane and the plane, of course was comfortable into one hundred and thirteen degree weather. And at that time there were a lot of troops that were being uh, that were being killed and UH. And on the runway there was a line of body bags. And so that was my first experience, you know, the
exposure to Vietnam. You step off, you see the stairs, and then you see all these body bags, and then you experience the heat and the humidity and UH. And so that was it was an eye opening experience, but one you had to adjust to and and all of us did, of course, but I had kept up with UH. You know, Vietnam, I mean, Marine Corps did a good job of preparing us. UH. And that was a really
period of unrest. As you may know, during UH the during nineteen sixty eight, there were UH there were demonstrations all over this country. We were in Quantico and in Washington, one hundred thousand people gathered to oppose the war. And so it made a young man think, now, what am I getting into and why am I doing this? But I think most of us who grew up watching John Wayne movies believed in the country, and we believed in what we were doing. And so I sort of side
stepped in. He disbelieved for questions and stepped into what they had prepared me to do.
Hawkins says, as soon as he landed, he was in the air again and on the way to his first assignment as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam.
Immediately after I arrived in Danang, they put me on a plane and flew me down to Cheu Lie. And it was from there that they put me on a helicopter and flew me up to my first duty assignment as a platoon leader. And so you had to adjust pretty quickly. And I knew that it would be a challenge, but I didn't know you know, very much about that challenge. But it didn't take long before my feet were wet and I was at least a jesting.
That's doctor Jack Hawkins, Chancellor of Troy University in Alabama, who also served as a Marine Corps officer and platoon commander in Vietnam. When we come back, doctor Hawkins explains how he won the confidence of more experienced enlisted men and the dangerous work assigned to his platoon that got him wounded less than a month after arriving. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is doctor Jack Hawkins. He served as a US Marine Corps infantry officer in the Vietnam War. When Hawkins arrived in Vietnam in April of nineteen sixty eight, the United States was engaged in Operation Wheeler Wallowa. Hawkins explains what that mission was designed to accomplish.
We were largely in a in a compound situation, and so the operations that we went on were patrols and making sure that highway was open. It was in Operation Wheeler Wallower that and that lasted for several months. And so it wasn't just one intense campaign that started here and a week later ended, uh. It was. It was
more drawn out than that. We were in the quang Nam Province, which was south of the name, but it was an overall effort to rid that region of the Vietcong in the NVA, and so it would required, you know, vigilance, it required lots of air support, it required combat. Generally, it just sometimes you'd find him and most often you couldn't. That was one of the real frustrating pieces of the war.
Hawkins also tells us about his unit and its primary responsibility.
My primary battalion was the Knife Engineer Combat Engineer Battalion out of Shoe Lie. I was with Delta Company, and I was a platoon leader for the third toon of Delta Company, which was affectionately known as the Third Herd. And so I went up to Delta Company, which was located about thirty to forty miles south of d Nag and immediately they sent me up to the battalion of Korean Marines, who were really unquestionably good warriors, you know. So it was just a few of US Americans my platoon.
I was only American officer for a long time.
And what exactly was the Third Herd expected to do in cooperation with the Korean Marines.
We supported them in mines and booby traps, and we would go on patrols and sweep the roads, and that was primarily what we primarily what we did. We did a lot of other things, but keeping that highway, especially Highway one, which was the main linkage throughout the country. Uh, we had a section of that highway, and so we would get up every morning and sometimes we would do sweeps in the afternoon as well in addition to patrols.
But we would uh sweep those roads and for mines and for booby traps, and uh it was a pretty predictable and that's a danger too. Patterns and UH and cycles are dangerous in combat, uh in situations like that because if they know generally when you're coming and where you're got to be, you could almost lad there as
a sitting duck. And so it was. It was an interesting experience one that I really had to stay on my ment about because I didn't want them uh falling victim to uh, you know, to any sort of sense of security, uh, because of the minute you think you're secure your dot.
But in addition to working well with America's allies, Hawkins also had to win over his own enlisted men, some of whom were already on their second tour. Hawkins says, there's only one way to earn trust and respect.
Well, you know, you certainly are anxious, particularly when about those whom you lead who have been there. And I had Marines in my platoon who had been over. They were on their second visit to Vietnam, and so you have to prove yourself. You have to remember though, that you lead from the front, and you know you take care of your troops and you eat less. And if you do those things, then generally that you can earn
their respect. Respect is never just given. Now you can assume respect goes with the rank, but over time, in a very short period of time, either you'll earn the respect of your Marines or troops or you'll lose it. And so I think it was some of my most valuable lessons that I have benefited from came during that period of time of service. When I was in the Marine Corps, I learned far more than I taught by troops. I learned from them.
And it also means getting your men the stuff they need and want. And thanks to some Alabama connections, Hawkins was able to accomplish that too.
The major initiative there was supporting by air. Our airfield was there that was sort of the base of operations for much of the administrative pieces of the Marine Corps and logistics center. In fact, I might tell you that we were at the end of the supply line where I was with the Koreans. But I had a friend who knew from college. He was a fraternity brother and also a Marine Corps officer, and he was a supply officer and we were communicating, and I told him that
I couldn't get supplies from my marines. And we were there not too far from the Americal Division of the Army. They had everything, we had nothing, and we would trade our sea rats to the extent they would tolerate sea rats. They had lurps and you know, better food than we did. And so he said, we'll come up and i'll fix
come to Danang and I'll give you some supplies. And so, without any authorization at all, I took a sixth by this truck, had my men put a fifty caliber machine gun on the back of it, and away we went. And without authority, I drove about thirty miles to Danang, which I later realized was not only was it naive, it was against the rules. But when I got there, my friend really loaded us up with supplies. In fact,
he even threw in a couple of pillows. But when we drove into that compound, when my men, my marines saw what we had in the back of that truck, you know, we got a standing applaus for bringing in bringing home the goods, so to speak. And so we took care of ourselves and what we needed from the Army or from the Korean Marines that we had we could barter items to trade.
In just a moment, you'll hear how Hawkins and other members of his platoon were injured just weeks after his arrival in Vietnam, and another very difficult day for him as a leader, and the guilt that came with it. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is doctor Jack Hawkins, Chancellor of Troy University. He also served as a US Marine Corps infantry officer during the
Vietnam War. As mentioned, Hawkins arrived in Vietnam in April of nineteen sixty eight. On May fourth, nineteen sixty eight, while trying to detect booby traps while working alongside those Korean Marines, his platoon was ambushed.
Well, I'm afraid that there are some examples of how we probably didn't change those patterns sufficiently, because there were several examples of ambushes that they knew we were coming, they knew generally when where we would be, they knew
what the circumstances included. For example, I hadn't been in country but just a few weeks when it was on a mine sweep with had about a reinforced platoon of Korean Marines running security for us, and we would sweep the road, and our sweep team largely I would be in the middle of it, but unfortunately the radio operator was close to me and you could see from a distance that antenna, which was a dangerous sign because that was a target. And so we were sweeping, sweeping the
road and we began to take fire. They knew we were going to be on that road about that same time, and so there was a tree line to our right and we began to take small arms fire, automatic weapons fire from the right. And the rice paddy had water in it, and so in order to really assess what was going on, we jumped to this backside of the berm. They did a great job. They planted about eight to ten mines along that road, spanned about one hundred feet.
They worked hard to do that, and you know at night, all those mines, those eight to ten mines were connected by way of wiring, and probably about one hundred two hundred meters to our flank, there was Vietcong or NBA. We didn't catch who did it, but who set off that those explosives. In course, by this time my platoon and those who were with us, the Koreans, were right in the middle of all of that, And so that was that happened just a few weeks after I got there.
In fact, on May the fourth, nineteen sixty eight, was when that occurred. And I don't know that there would have been a way to have avoided it. One thing that we did as a routine we had hook men out on the on the flanks who were dragging these hooks trying to find any wires that might be. But they must have planted those wires deeply, because we didn't find them. And unfortunately, because we didn't find them, we wo wound up experiencing what they had planned. They planned
it very well. And I might say this for the most part, where we were south of Denaying and operating in that area, in that province, there were a lot of Viet Cong. We seldom would see the NBA. On occasion we would, but the Viet Cong were everywhere. And people may not remember what a Viet Cong was, but a viet Cong largely could be a farmer. During the day and a soldier at night, and they were formidable. They inflicted a lot of casualties because they had the benefit of surprise.
Hawkins says he was dazed and wondering what injuries he had sustained when he realized one of his men needed his attention far more urgently.
Unfortunately, in the aftermath of that particular experience on May the fourth, you know, I couldn't You couldn't hear. I couldn't hear it. It cost me part of my hearing, and it was at that point I was deaf for a period of time, but you couldn't see because of all the dust and so forth. And I guess what really not to tell too many sea stories here, but probably what really brought me back to reality. I looked up in my patune sergeant. Half of his foot was
dragging behind him. He had been on top of one of those minds or near one of those mines, and probably had it not been for him in the situation he faced, I don't know how long I would have just lay there, but when I saw him I had to immediately react to that put him off that road, and that helped me to be more concerned about my troops than myself. I think that was a good leadership lesson too. You know, you often learned through your stakes.
Fortunately I didn't have the time to make the mistake of just thinking about myself. But it was that young sergeant in his situation that brought me back to where I should have been.
Less than one month into his deployment, Hawkins earned his first Purple Heart. He would receive one more, although he says the circumstances of the second one were not nearly as intense as the first. In fact, Hawkins says he's more sheepish about acknowledging that one.
It was not a typical sort of thing, and frankly it was more humorous than it was injurious And several months later I was walking across this French made bridge, had left my weapon on one end, had some troops on either end of it, and from a tree line they opened up on me, and in the process of moving for cover behind the columns of the bridge, I fell off the bridge with all that momentum and fell about twenty feet into a bed of rocks, cracked my kneecap,
ruined my elbow for many months, and they penned a second purple heart on me for that which I was never never really knew if I wanted to wear it or not, but because that was of my own doing.
Following his injuries, Hawkins was reassigned to jobs he did not enjoy as much and asked to be named a platoon commander again. His higher ups had just the assignment for him, restoring order to a platoon that had lost its focus and needed to get its priorities straight.
Then they pulled me to the rear and I had a battalion assignment. Didn't like it was in battalion there shoelafe for about six six weeks maybe two months, and I went to my battalion commander and I told him that, you know, I wanted another platoon. And he had a situation with the Segon Battalion, first Marines near Da Dang. He said, if you want a platoon, I give you a platoon. We have a situation with two to one where our platoon leaders has become too familiar with the troops.
He said, he's lost his platform and we're having to relieve him. And so he said, if you want that platoon, I'll give it to you. And I said okay. And so I went up there and quickly discovered, you know, the source of the problems there. And I think that it was a familiarity breeds contempt. And you can't be so arrogant or egotistical that you can't become part of the unit. But you can't give way to that familiarity
because hard decisions, you can't be that close. It's mission first, and that's another thing that we learned through training that has helped me throughout life. Mission first, people a close second. But if you ever subordinate your mission to your people, then you probably are making them miss because sometimes those hard decisions require people who follow, are not standing just besides you, but follow. And so I had that was
a unique experience. I'd had a great platoon UH in the third herd and UH, and when I watched this group throughout an afternoon realized what some of the problems were. I gathered them and UH and said, well, you know, I gave them my guadal Cadal speech. You may be of different race, you may be of different background, but we are all Marines and we're going to act like it. And there's no more uh, no more this and that. I won't get into the details of all of that.
But uh and, I said, and if you have been engaged or involved in in drugs. And by that time, when I got to Vietnam, I never saw any drugs, and out in the field, I never saw very much. But this was more of a battalion situation. And uh and and I detected that there was some drug use, especially marijuana, and I sort of laid down the law that that was gonna and that was not tolerated. I said, if you want to be part of this unit. Well,
not everybody agreed with that. It took me several days to get rid of some of those troublemakers, and I found some of the most interesting places to send them that I could find. And after that we had a model platoon. They almost reflected the conduct and behavior and decorum of the Third Herd.
But while the mission remained the top priority, commanding a platoon again also means taking care of your men as much as possible. Hawkins described another deadly moment and a decision he regretted in the moment and also stayed with him long afterwards.
Drawing sniper fire. Mortar fire was a common as almost a daily experience, and on one particular occasion in September, we were sweeping the road and getting back to patterns and having to be concerned about that. We had swept up to a village. We began taking small arms fire,
and of course that required required a response. But in the middle of this mind sweep team, we would have this truck this sixth by, and on that sixth by you'd have mounted you'd have two or three marines on the back of that truck, and you'd have a machine gun or fifty caliber machine gun mounted there. They began firing back towards end of this tree line, but then it subsided. The truck went into the village to turn around, and I noticed at the last minute there that there
was a school where this driver was turning into. But there were no children, and that was rather unusual. And before I could get to or stop this driver from turning into that driveway under the school grounds to back his truck up, so we marched south, he hit a mine and that killed several marines who were on that truck nearby. In fact, I had a corman who was
on the who had jumped up. I told him twice to get off that running board, but his buddy was driving the truck, and immediately Doc was blown about fifty feet away and instantly killed. It. Blew the driver out about fifty feet and blew the bend off the back end of the sixth by, and a couple of those guys were killed. Blew one across the road into a rice paddy. Now, fortunately there was some water in that rice paddy and he emerged. But my driver, when I
got to him, he was walking back. Most of his clothing was blown off, and he was just a walking zombie at that point. Great man, but he survived. He suffered probably seventy five percent burns over his body, having been blown out of that driver's seat onto the road, and with his skin dripping off of his arms. He came back towards me, and I'll never forget. When we
called in that metavac, two things happened. I hate to say this about my Marine Corps, but we started taking incoming again, and I called in metovac to extract these wounded men and the bodies. My Marine Corps helicopter came in but began taking fire, and so he took off, and so I resorted to calling medical crew from the m a er Cayle Division and an Army helicopter came in. And I have great respect for those Army pilots who flew those hues. Most of them were eighteen twenty twenty
two years old. They knew no fear, at least most of them didn't, and they were worth They were very valuable in that situation. He brought that helicopter in. We were able to put those men on that helicopter. And this man, Zach is his last name. He's still alive. When I put him on that helicopter, I never thought he would survive. He was even sticking to the base of the helicopter. But thanks to quality health care in forty operations later, he came out. He was married, had children.
There's nothing harder than losing the menu fight with shoulder to shoulder, Hawkins freely admits he learned more from them than they did from him, but he also says his time in the Marine Corps opened his eyes to something he had never realized back home.
I never went to an integrated school. You know. We grew up in a segregated South and so I had little or no contact with minorities. Even when I went to the basic school in Quantico, there were four hundred second lieutenants, and it was not totally integrated. We had some from Hispanic backgrounds, but to my knowledge, we didn't have one African American in that battalion or that company of Marines. And so it was not until I arrived in Vietnam that I had any real involvement with people
of different races. I had known a couple of international students in undergraduate school, but even then we were more segregated. And so I think what I learned from early in that experience in Vietnam, where twenty five percent of my troops with African American, about fifteen percent we're either Hispanic or we had a couple of Asians of that background, but about sixty percent were Caucasians. But when that first round goes off, you don't really care what race or background.
You care about each other. And I think, while it might be a worn out phrase, all blood flows red. And I think that experience in Vietnam changed my perspective. Not only did I gain a perspective of the global community, but also gained a perspective and the appreciation for looking beyond race, looking beyond backgrounds, you know, looking to the person.
That's doctor Jack Hawkins, Chancellor of Troy University in Alabama. He served as a US Marine Corps infantry officer and platoon commander during the Vietnam War. When we come back, doctor Hawkins moves from the military into the academic world, and within a few decades he was right back in Vietnam. That story is next. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is doctor Jack Hawkins. He's the
chancellor of Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He also served as a platoon commander in the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Hawkins came home from Vietnam in nineteen sixty nine. Before long, he was back in school, and soon he realized he wanted to stay on campus working in higher education. He eventually found his way to Troy University. The schools respect for our military and commitment to traditional values led to educational opportunities for Troy students around the
world and for international students to come to Troy. And that's how Hawkins ended up back in Vietnam and creating a professional partnership with a former Vietcong.
Troy University is a pretty conservative place. It's a flag waving place. It's a place where values are important. The culture is important. I often tell our Board of Trustees and our faculty and staff, our most important responsibility is the preservation of this culture. A lot of higher education in this country has gone far to the left, and Troy is not like that.
Troy.
If those who serve are important to Troy University, we recognize them. We just do everything we can to support them. But it's been that way for many, many years. My predecessor, doctor half Adams, served and he was a brigadier general in the Air Force and retired, and he carried us to Europe through add contract in nineteen seventy four. Well, we had been on bases in this country. We were at Fort Rucker now Fort Novsel, we were over at
Fort Benning, we were at Maxwell Air Force Base. But it was the international piece started in nineteen seventy four, and when I arrived in Troy, that was all in place. We were in ten countries, twenty six military bases. I found that really attracting, and that was one reason I wanted to be part of Troy. So when they offered
me the position, of course I was accepted it. But when the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union fell apart, this country downsized troop strength in Europe by two thirds, and so there was no longer a presence required for us serving those men and women in uniform. We began to look to the future, and we saw the future more in Asia than we did in Europe, and so it was then that we began we had a three three prong strategy. The first was to bring Troy or
the world to Troy. We began to recruit international students. We only had forty international students on our main campus before COVID we had seventy five countries represented in over four hundred students from China alone. So we changed the culture of the university. There was a much more diverse and today there is a much more diverse student body than we had back then. We also, though committed ourselves
to continuing to plant the flag. We may not be throughout Europe like we had once worked, but there are markets and places we needed to serve in Asia. And then the third, of course, is a study of broad peace, which we try to encourage all of our students. But it was that second piece, planning our flag abroad that carried me to Vietnam. And we were already in places like China and Malaysia. But in Vietnam I was invited in O one I turned it down. That's how strongly
I felt about Vietnam. But in two I was invited again and decided to go. And it was a totally different country. The Vietnam that I left was not the Vietnam that I encountered when I went back in two, I didn't see resentment. I didn't see very many examples of where the war had destroyed the country or the people. Now, there were a lot of those when you look beyond the pale, you could see, but it was a different country. And so we went to Hanoi first, believe it or not.
In fact, my first hotel room overlooked what has become known is the Hanoi Hilton. I could have thrown a stone out of my hotel room and hit the roof of that prison where John McCain and all those great men were imprisoned all those years. And so we set up programs with parts universities. We don't build buildings, we build partnerships, and so we set up programs. We're in
partnership with two universities in Hanoi. We went down to Saigon now the name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City, set up an academic program or programs there, and things began to really develop. In two thousand and eight, Troy became the first American university to ever award the bachelor's degree in Vietnam. The years passed, twenty seventeen, I was invited to have dinner while I was in country for
a graduation ceremony to go to Dunang. Of course, you know, I was always interested in going back to d Nang, and so I went back to d Nang and had dinner with this gentleman who had started a private university. It is known as Dewey Kan University. Today it's the number one private university in that country. He established that university in nineteen ninety four, so it's been thirty years.
They just celebrated the thirtieth anniversary. What I learned over dinner, though, and it may have been the most interesting conversation I've ever had. I learned that he had fought as a Viet Cong. And what I later learned was that not only had he fought as a vit Kan soldier, but he was considered a national hero, and so that gave him some leverage when he attempted to start this private university.
And I found it so interesting and almost a paradox that here we were two men who had fought on opposite sides of the battlefield coming together to talk about a partnership which would unite our universities well based on the year's fifteen years experience we had. I knew it could be done. We had done it well in other places, and so we launched a partnership and it has worked beautifully. He has a great university. I've gotten to know him. His name is doctor Lei khan Co.
Going back to Vietnam was opening for Hawkins, both in terms of education and how different Vietnam was decades after he served there. Hawkins says, the advancements in Vietnam are very impressive.
We have over two thousand graduates in Vietnam. They're in responsible positions, rising executives with Samsung, with nonprofits like the Helen Keller Foundation, et cetera, et cetera. And we have about twelve hundred students on the ground and a growing population of students. Many of those students want the American experience, and so those who are able to afford it come to Troy. We have over one hundred students from Vietnam on this campus, the majority of who started with us
in Vietnam. But because of a curriculum that allows matriculation without the loss of credits, if you begin in a computer science program in day Nay, you can finish in the computer science program in Troy. And so it's a highly articulated program that opens doors for students who have that desire, and most do. I think I would summarize all of that by saying, the people in Vietnam have a deep appreciation for Americans, and I believe our appreciation
for Vietnam is growing in America. When I was there this fall, what I also witnessed was a lot of manufacturing being shifted from China down to Vietnam. And so the business community is really getting involved, and I think we'll see we'll see a lot more of the free market system in Vietnam than you'll see in any other communist country. Governmentally, they may be called communists, but the young people we serve in the communities throughout that country.
They want to know how this free market system works and they want to be part of it.
The friendship Howkins struck up with the Viet Cong fighter turned university president also took on a new dimension a documentary focused on the importance of reconciliation.
Now, doctor lay Conko is the founder of that university and is the president of that university. Has two children who adore him, doctor Hong Ley who is a daughter, and doctor Bao Lay the son, and both are involved with the university. But just to give you how an idea of how the world has changed. The daughter of lay kan Ko came to America and she lived for twenty years in Washington, State of Washington. She's married and now recently I hear from her regularly. She lives in Amsterdam.
But her son plays GoF at the University of Washington, and the son, Biolay, is still in Da Nang. The reason I give you that background they revere their dad. So it was about two years ago now almost three years about two and a half years ago, they commissioned a film company out of Danang to capture the story that they were witnessing with particularly the life of their dad. Their primary desire was to capture the story of their dad so that the family could preserve that the memories
in the history of this man. He's now eighty four years old, and so you know, they wanted to do it as quickly as they could, and so this film crew got involved in it. They even came to Troy University and did a lot of footage. But it was for the family. It was never for public consumption, and so the but it went. They sent it through the censorship process in Vietnam and the government approved it for airing.
It aired in the Central Highlands in December of twenty three, and it was so well received that they aired it over national television in January. And it was during the airing of that documentary in January that President, the former president of Vietnam called doctor hang Ley and said she was in country when he called her in Vietnam, and he said that not only should the people of Vietnam see this, but the people of America see this. You know.
He went on to emphasize that it was not as much about war as it was about war breeding, reconciliation and its reconciliation and a partnership that was born of a war. And the family put the label on the film, the documentary and it's beyond a war. But the magic and power is really in the subtitle where it says wars begin and end, but love lasts forever, or relationships last forever, as it might be interpreted. It was released to America the Vietnam Veterans Board in Washington approved endorse
this documentary. That all the members of the board apparently watched the documentary and they they approved it and encouraged you know, Americans to see it. It didn't premiere though in America until September the twenty ninth of this past year in Montgomery, and then it was shown over public television in Alabama, and now it's being marketed for public television, YouTube and you know, and other outlets so people can see this documentary which is about reconciliation. And when I
what I've been asked, what's the value of it? I think about the division in America that we've experienced in recent years, and how real leadership is about bringing people together, and what we need in America today is unity more than we've ever needed it. And I think if as a good example of reconciliation, if we can resolve between countries that were once at war, surely we can resolve differences within our political structure, within our communities of this country.
And so it's a demonstration of what can be if you've work together and focus on the future. It's stay focused on what's good for humanity.
That's doctor Jack Hawkins, Chancellor of Troy University in Troy, Alabama. Since taking on that role, he created the Troy for Troops program, which assists military affiliated students. He's also been named Alabama's Citizen of the Year, and he received the twenty twenty four Armed Forces Merit Award for his work with the military and in advancing college athletics. The documentary he mentioned is entitled Beyond a War. I'm Greg Corumbus
and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC update.
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