Honoring United States Veterans of Military Duty
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1757, Cook MN
The HONOR GUARD
Don Balmer- US Navy
Al Bergman- US Army
Galen Bergman- US Army
Dan Brinker- US Navy
Gary Dehn- US Navy
John (Skip) Dickinson- US Marine Corps
Don Doroff- US Army
Dick Fontana- US Navy
Les Holm- US Army
Bill Lange- US Navy
Richard (Ozzie) Leciejewski- US Army
Darrel Lindgren- US Marine Corps
Greg Lund- US Army
Gerald (Jerry) Scofield- US Navy
Jerry Snell- US Nay
Jim Taylor- US Marine Corps
Vietnam War, (1954–75): A protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War Against the Americans to Save the Nation”), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict (see Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.
At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.
The “Britannica”
The Parachute Gown Exhibited at NWFA
See the dreamy green 1940s style evening gown sewn from a WW II parachute at Northwoods Friends of the Arts Gallery in Cook, MN. U.S. Army nurse, 1st Lieutenant Dorothy Whiteside (Simensen) needed a dress for an officers dinner dance. Stationed in Guam near the end of the war, dresses, money nor supplies were available until she spotted a discarded parachute and used her home economics sewing skills! See the dress and Dorothy’s full story during November at NWFA Gallery.
Quilts of Valor
“Our Mission: to cover Service Members and Veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.”
The Quilts of Valor Foundation has partnered with the Vietnam War Commemoration Program. The program was created through the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act to honor all those who served during the Vietnam War. By presidential proclamations on May 25, 2012,...
Photographer, Connie Stone, photographed the ceremony and the photos will be on exhibit at NWFA Gallery in Cook during open hours in November. There will also be other veteran exhibits and stories on display.
