The veterans returned to Vietnam with ghosts to confront and wounds to heal.
Ron Harris of Cary filled a Baggie with sand from the spot where buddy Sam Searcey lost his leg. Bobby Thrower of Willow Spring discovered the foundation of the building where American prisoners of war were once held at Son Tay.
David Samuels left the diary he found in the butt of a gun once aimed at his heart with a Viet Cong commander who promised to get it to the young soldier's family. It had weighed on Samuels' mind for nearly 40 years.
But it was at the Nuoc Ngot Orphanage that the 12-day "bridge back" to Vietnam, which I wrote about last month before they left, fulfilled the vets' true aspiration.
There the vets - who helped develop and teach a popular course on Vietnam in the Wake County schools, which has been adopted across the country - tried to make good on a promise made long ago to help the Vietnamese people.
Bill Dixon of Raleigh had solicited tens of thousands of dollars in donated equipment - dozens of suitcases filled with educational and medical supplies for the orphanage and two other schools. Bob Matthews, the group's leader, also brought a valise packed with cash.
With it, they purchased a truckload of bicycles, 40 in all, for some of the kids who attend school at the orphanage. Many walk up to eight miles to get to school.
The truck stopped at the end of the orphanage driveway. Then one after another, the children came running out to try out their new bikes as nearby villagers crowded around to watch.
For more than an hour, the vets and several hired mechanics helped the kids raise and lower seats, adjust handlebars and start pedaling.
Joe Harsch, burly and tough-talking, stood to the side and wept.
In subsequent days, the vets took similar bounty to a school for the blind and a Vietnamese high school, where they also handed out envelopes with letters and contact information for students at Athens Drive, Leesville Road and East Alamance high schools. The students are already exchanging e-mail.
Before leaving the high school, the vets cleared out space indoors (it was pouring rain) and Matthews, with his ever-present baseball cap atop his head, commenced to teach the children America's favorite pastime.
Matthews, a multiple winner of teacher of the year accolades, hadn't lost his touch. The kids caught on quickly.
"When they started hitting for the windows, it was time to leave," he said.
Although he enjoyed all the adventures in Vietnam, Samuels said he could've spent another two days at the orphanage. There, after 40 years, he and the other vets in the Wake County group felt they were able to make a difference in the lives of young people.
"That was the most frustrating thing for me back in the '70s," Samuels said. "Our mission was to stop communism. We did not accomplish our mission."
This time, Matthews said, "We had a new mission. This time, we completed it."
"This time," he said, "we won."
