The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum at Camp Dodge is holding its fifth Annual Vietnam Living History event this Saturday and Sunday.
Museum curator Mike Vogt says reinactors will be on hand. “We have 15 to 20 volunteers that adorn themselves in Vietnam era uniforms, weapons, accoutrements, camp equipage,” he says. A rural State Center man will fly in his 1961 Marine Corps UH-34 helicopter that was actually used in Vietnam.
“It’s got scars and patches on it from bullets and shrapnel. And he’s going to fly that in and set it down on the helicopter pad just not far from where we’ll have our compound set up. And that’ll be available for question and answer and tours,” he says. The helicopter will only be on site Saturday.
Another man will give demonstrations and fire a howitzer. “He’s a former Marine Corps veteran artilleryman in Vietnam. And he gives a great presentation talking about how fire missions were assigned and what the gun battery crew was, what their duties were,” Vogt says. “And the important part that artillery played not only for the Marine Corps, but for the Army in support of infantry troops in Vietnam.” The howitzer firings are set for 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
There will also be a rare “Boston Whaler” fiberglass boat on display that was armed with an M-60 machine gun and operated in Vietnam by all branches of the military for a variety of missions. Vogt says they’ve talked with Vietnam veterans so they can be accurate in portraying the equipment.
“They might say we were issued this, but it didn’t work very well. We love this, but, they were in short supply or we always wore this piece of equipment on our pistol belt on this side for this reason,” he says. “So they bring us that experiential element that sometimes book learning can’t always fulfill.”
Vogt says the average Vietnam veteran is now 72 or 73 years old. He says the men and women who served in Vietnam were not welcomed home like today’s troops because of the social upheaval and the negativity about the war, but he says that has changed through the years. “It’s late, but that appreciation in the last several decades, I think is starting to become more evident,”Vogt says.
The event is free both days, and all you need is identification to get into the gate at Camp Dodge in Johnston.