The following news story ran in the Brattleboro Reformer on October 9, 2007
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By BOB AUDETTE
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO
He's been teaching the lessons of Vietnam at Brattleboro Union High School since 1984. But during a recent visit to Southeast Asia, gill Holiday realized he still had plenty to learn about the conflict that took the lives of nearly 60,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese.
"The Vietnamese people have put this war behind them," said Holiday. For a people who have been in an almost constant state of warfare for 2,000 years, the American War, as it is known in Vietnam, was "just a blip on the radar. It surprised me how they have put it behind them and we haven't."
Holiday, a Brattleboro native, is often remembered for his feats of athleticism during his own high school years and as a coach after finishing college, but is now known for the history lessons he presents at his alma mater.
In August, Holiday traveled to Vietnam with Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Scruggs, who has made half a dozen trips to the country, visited Xuan Loc, where he was wounded in 1969.
"I wasn't sure how (the Vietnamese) would see us," said Holiday, adding "Vietnam is not holding a grudge. If it was me, I would look at us a little jaundiced."
The trip was part fact-finding and part goodwill mission, with teachers and other Vietnam veterans touring areas of historic interest and learning about the operations of Project RENEW, a VVMF humanitarian program focused on mine awareness education and victim assistance.
RENEW is an acronym for Restoring the use of lands to the Vietnamese through Education and Neutralization of the Effects of the Vietnam War.
Three and a half million land mines and 300,000 tons of unexploded ordnance litter the country, according to Vietnamese officials. 35,000 people have died because of land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1975. Countless others have been injured by the weapons.
According to VVMF, from 1965 to 1975, the U.S. Armed Forces used more than 15 million tons of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other ordnance in Vietnam. That's more than three times the tonnage used in World War II and 12 times the amount America used in the Korean War.
Ten percent of the Vietnam War munitions did not detonate as designed, and the Vietnamese have been dealing with the effects of unexploded ordinance for more than 30 years.
Holiday has wanted to travel to Vietnam for several years, but not until this past summer was he able to make it fit his schedule. "I made a commitment a long time ago to visit a lot of the places that I teach about." Those trips included visits to Alabama to learn more about civil rights and Dallas to learn more about the Kennedy assassination.
In Ho Chi Minh City - which most people still call Saigon said Holiday, he visited the War Remnants Museum, once known as the War Atrocities Museum. The museum shows how weapons used by France and the United States, including Agent Orange, affected the Vietnamese and their country.
Holiday also visited Hanoi, Khe Sanh, the Laotian border, Cu Chi, Hue and Danang.
"My focus was purely educational," said Holiday. "To see Vietnam for myself and use what I could in teaching or in providing opportunities for students."
Holiday brings veterans into the classroom to talk to the students about the war, part of the Veterans Education Project. And they don't all come with the same viewpoint.
"Some opposed the war and others believe we didn't apply the right strategy."
He also applies the lessons of the past to current events.
"Some kids come to the conclusion that people were lying (about why we were in Vietnam)," and they are starting to wonder the same thing about Iraq. "Where were the weapons of mass destruction?"
Holiday is a member of the Teach Vietnam Teachers Network, which was introduced in 2002 by VVMF to help teach about the war and to educate students about the impact of the Vietnam War.
Teachers are also encouraged to complete a community outreach project to promote Vietnam- and veteran-related education within his or her community. Projects may range from holding a Veterans Day ceremony at school to initiating a "pen pal" program with a veterans' hospital to creating a memorial to local veterans.
Three of his students are organizing a campaign to raise money to help the VVFW's RENEW project.
"It's a very worthwhile community service project to help raise funds," he said, and the students can make an active contribution to "the closure of the war."
It's easy to think of Vietnam as a backwards country, he said, but when you visit there, you realize how industrious and forward looking they are, with mobile phones in everybody's pockets and new highways being built.
"The country is still communist on the surface," he said, but "they are also cultivating investment."
View Article Scan
By BOB AUDETTE
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO
He's been teaching the lessons of Vietnam at Brattleboro Union High School since 1984. But during a recent visit to Southeast Asia, gill Holiday realized he still had plenty to learn about the conflict that took the lives of nearly 60,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese.
"The Vietnamese people have put this war behind them," said Holiday. For a people who have been in an almost constant state of warfare for 2,000 years, the American War, as it is known in Vietnam, was "just a blip on the radar. It surprised me how they have put it behind them and we haven't."
Holiday, a Brattleboro native, is often remembered for his feats of athleticism during his own high school years and as a coach after finishing college, but is now known for the history lessons he presents at his alma mater.
In August, Holiday traveled to Vietnam with Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Scruggs, who has made half a dozen trips to the country, visited Xuan Loc, where he was wounded in 1969.
"I wasn't sure how (the Vietnamese) would see us," said Holiday, adding "Vietnam is not holding a grudge. If it was me, I would look at us a little jaundiced."
The trip was part fact-finding and part goodwill mission, with teachers and other Vietnam veterans touring areas of historic interest and learning about the operations of Project RENEW, a VVMF humanitarian program focused on mine awareness education and victim assistance.
RENEW is an acronym for Restoring the use of lands to the Vietnamese through Education and Neutralization of the Effects of the Vietnam War.
Three and a half million land mines and 300,000 tons of unexploded ordnance litter the country, according to Vietnamese officials. 35,000 people have died because of land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1975. Countless others have been injured by the weapons.
According to VVMF, from 1965 to 1975, the U.S. Armed Forces used more than 15 million tons of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other ordnance in Vietnam. That's more than three times the tonnage used in World War II and 12 times the amount America used in the Korean War.
Ten percent of the Vietnam War munitions did not detonate as designed, and the Vietnamese have been dealing with the effects of unexploded ordinance for more than 30 years.
Holiday has wanted to travel to Vietnam for several years, but not until this past summer was he able to make it fit his schedule. "I made a commitment a long time ago to visit a lot of the places that I teach about." Those trips included visits to Alabama to learn more about civil rights and Dallas to learn more about the Kennedy assassination.
In Ho Chi Minh City - which most people still call Saigon said Holiday, he visited the War Remnants Museum, once known as the War Atrocities Museum. The museum shows how weapons used by France and the United States, including Agent Orange, affected the Vietnamese and their country.
Holiday also visited Hanoi, Khe Sanh, the Laotian border, Cu Chi, Hue and Danang.
"My focus was purely educational," said Holiday. "To see Vietnam for myself and use what I could in teaching or in providing opportunities for students."
Holiday brings veterans into the classroom to talk to the students about the war, part of the Veterans Education Project. And they don't all come with the same viewpoint.
"Some opposed the war and others believe we didn't apply the right strategy."
He also applies the lessons of the past to current events.
"Some kids come to the conclusion that people were lying (about why we were in Vietnam)," and they are starting to wonder the same thing about Iraq. "Where were the weapons of mass destruction?"
Holiday is a member of the Teach Vietnam Teachers Network, which was introduced in 2002 by VVMF to help teach about the war and to educate students about the impact of the Vietnam War.
Teachers are also encouraged to complete a community outreach project to promote Vietnam- and veteran-related education within his or her community. Projects may range from holding a Veterans Day ceremony at school to initiating a "pen pal" program with a veterans' hospital to creating a memorial to local veterans.
Three of his students are organizing a campaign to raise money to help the VVFW's RENEW project.
"It's a very worthwhile community service project to help raise funds," he said, and the students can make an active contribution to "the closure of the war."
It's easy to think of Vietnam as a backwards country, he said, but when you visit there, you realize how industrious and forward looking they are, with mobile phones in everybody's pockets and new highways being built.
"The country is still communist on the surface," he said, but "they are also cultivating investment."
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