Report from Santa Fe; Victor Westphall, In Memoriam - Ernie Mills

Ladies and gentlemen, undoubtedly, you've heard by now that Ernie Mills passed away on February 26, 2003. Vietnam veterans were especially important Ernie. This is a show he taped in August of 1999 at the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial in Angel Fire in New Mexico, the first National Memorial to Vietnam veterans in the country. Some Ernie Mills, this is report from Santa Fe today from the Vietnam Memorial at Angel Fire in New Mexico, our guest, one of the most beloved men I know in the United States, Dr. Victor Westfall. Victor, it's good to be back again. Good to have you Ernie. I'm sure that we'll have a good production as we have in the past.

Victor, I would like to go back. It's been 31 years ago, and I was thinking this week, I went to Vietnam as a correspondent. I was in February of 1968 in May of 1968. Your son, Victor Westfall, the third was shot and killed by a sniper in Vietnam. You came back then with it. You had a dream. What was your dream then? David was killed in Vietnam in an ambush on May 22, 1968, and he had insurance money that he left at the time. We didn't want to use it for any ordinary things such as scholarships or my wife thought of the idea of the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel. And in the parlance of the times, I grabbed that idea like a dog wearing a bone and carried on from there. We're looking back. Are you surprised that your dream turned out the way you wanted? Of course, I know this like that can't anticipate exactly what's going to happen. But at no time did I think of it in terms of being a local area or just a memorial to our son.

But rather, I was thinking in terms of a gift to humanity. In 1969, I had come back from the second tour of Vietnam. And I was amazed at what was happening to the young men who served there. There was a lot of rife in the country at the time. And the result of that was that the Vietnam Memorial, which was one of its first in the nation in my memory, this suddenly blossomed as a place for all Vietnam veterans to come. They still, they look almost upon this as their home. But it was so valuable at the time because it was bonding for them. Did you anticipate that? By and large, Vietnam veterans didn't get a very good welcome when they came home. And so it was most important and timely that I started the Memorial Chapel in 1968, the year of the telephensive, the bloodiest year of the war. Because the Vietnam veterans realized that at least here, somebody cared. By and large, throughout the nation, there wasn't very good feeling toward them here that it was a different situation they were very much regarded.

You know, when you came up here now, and again, it's almost like fate, you had a construction business in Albuquerque. You sold your business, but you came up here and you bought property, the property upon which the Memorial now sits. That was in 1966. That's almost as if fate decreed what you were going to do. I was in the building business in Albuquerque, and as you say, I spent three years trying to dissolve that building business, it was liquidated so I could write the full time to writing history. I suddenly came up on the idea of coming up here and purchasing Valverde-Rain, which was the name of the acreage. For a modern subdivision. And it really didn't make any sense at all. I came up here in 1966. In 1968, I found out why I was here when our son was killed. And I was called upon to start the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel, which, by the way, is the first memorial to the Vietnam veterans anywhere.

The first anywhere. And I found when I went back to Washington, I had Vietnam veterans back there when they put the wall up. And they told me they said the wall was live. And it's lovely. I said, but if it hadn't been for Dr. West Falls, Memorial in New Mexico, they didn't know whether or not they would make it. I have found that when we talk about dreams, you had a number of dreams that, you know, even surrounding the time when Victor, young Victor had been killed, that seemed to tell you what was happening over there. Can you relate a couple of those for us? It was very timely that these occurrences, dreams, visions, call it what you may. But one of the most unusual were they certain time and place. I decided that there would be 13 photos in the chapel across the side would be 13 feet high. They would fly the 13 star flag, which is the first original flag of our nation.

I was born on October 13th, 1913. And all of these 13s, I finally found the year-and-a-half later that there were 13 of the company killed in which David lost his life. The scenes of extraordinary coincidence and far more than coincidence. You know, I had, and again, these stories turn up every day. There's another story. I sat here one day meditating outside the chapel and the man came up to me and said, are you from New Mexico? I said, yes. And he said, do you know a fellow named Richard Roca? And I said, very well. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. And he said, I don't know how much you know about him. I said, well, I know why he won the medal, but I never got the full details. He said, I'm the man that Richard Roca pulled out of a helicopter. He said, I looked up and he said, there was no way that I could survive. And he said, here was this madman standing on the side of the chopper. He said, you could almost see the tracer bullets going over his head.

He pulled out the copilot who was killed and put, he said, save my life. You had this happen recently. I think just a few days before we did this video, you talked to the man who had brought back Victor's body from Vietnam. And all these years, you had never met him. Just two or three days ago, day before yesterday, no matter if fact, David Billbray from a small town in Kansas, paid me a visit. He was the pilot of the helicopter who was sent to bring back the dead of the moon and then after the ambush at Coven. And he was army, and a resupply mission to K-SAM from Don Ha on the way back from K-SAM. He was instructed by radio to go and pick up the dead of the moon to that K-SAM.

I mean, at Comtheon, which included my son. And it was a very emotional moment for both of us, of course, particularly for him. And he had his wife and family along, and they controlled him very nicely. You know, that area, I am familiar with, because I had flown into Don Ha, and sure enough, at that, which most desolate place in the world, it was a fellow from New Mexico, PD Menace, was stationed there. And, of course, moved over to the landing pad where they picked you up to take you into K-SAM, and there was another young man named Marine Josadillo, who had passed away. But they were, New Mexicans, remarvelous. I think we've said the figures frequently, one out of eight people who served in Vietnam saw a combat, one out of three, New Mexicans saw a combat over there. Did you do the design for the chapel yourself for the Vietnam Memorial?

You ask if I did the design for the chapel, no. A young architect, by the name of Ted Luna, at the time, was brought together by a Mitchell acquaintance. And he designed and built the design of the chapel. And my only charge to him was that anyone entering was not able to leave, feeling exactly as they had before, about peace and war. So they came up with all these soft, gentle curves, which, from a design standpoint, is the epitome of peace. And therefore, properly, the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel. When I went back in my memory, going back to Washington, and then having people come to me and say, Ernie, you know Dr. Westful. When you go back to New Mexico, I've given my very best. So I suddenly realized that this young contractor, Victor Westful, from New Mexico, was known all over the country, talking to people like Colonel Hackworth, probably the most decorated soldier that we've ever had in this country. He asked, I was Victor Westful of doing, we looked at that period.

And then your dream expanded. And we were looking at the dreams when you started, and then taking it up to a period about almost the present. Bring us up to date on what people should know about it, because it's still, you, as you mentioned to me, people come in here. And never hear loud noises. It is one, you know, people are enthralled with what you put together here. People come here, and they repeatedly say that they sense something that they can't put their finger on. And actually, this has been, since prehistory, a sacred place for the Aboriginal people, the Native Americans here. Five miles north of here is a rock outcrop, out of it struggling to survive as a single pine tree. How old is this? It's hard to say without making, taking tree rings, the evidence from it. But that was a shrine and altar for the tallest purple Indians when they used to come down here for rule-lake, which is a sacred lake of the tallest purple people.

They used to put cornmeal and natural native niches in the rock, just from the weathering from the rock. And of course, it was acquired by the birds, but it served their purpose of their philosophy, their religion of going back to the weather earth. Victor, you went back to Vietnam to Kantien, and am I correct that you took some of the dirt from this site, and mixed it with the dirt over there, and took some of the dirt from there to bring it back to this enchanted area here? Yes, that's correct. And actually, the purpose of the visit was to visit the ambush site where our son was killed. And one of the things we thought would be just kind of a proper thing to do was to take soil from Angelfire, which is the actual site where the memorial is, to Kantien in Vietnam, and acquire soil there and bring it back.

I think enough, we took soil from Angelfire to Kantien. Kantien has lived in the east for hill of the angels, so he took soil from Angelfire to the hill of the angels and back. We're back to the present and important time. What are your dreams for the future now? You see, you're a man that has dreamed for the thirty years that I've known you. Well, what are your dreams now? What would you like to see happen? Well, I don't believe that so much of the matter of what I'd like to see is what seems to be dictated by circumstance. In November of last year, the disabled American veterans, the DAV, made a magnificent bequest to the David Westfall Veterans Foundation, the entire memorial complex. And if we accepted that gift, we knew full well, or it would have to raise substantial amounts of money to perpetuate it. And that is a challenge and a promise. The challenge is to do it. The promise is that I think that people in the nation will respond to help us acquire that funding to perpetuate the memorial and to perpetuate that dream.

The foundation, now that's new. And it's national in scope. And when I talked to you earlier about it, you seem surprised at the response to the foundation. People would say, coming out of the woodwork more or less and say, no, I want to be part of this. Yes, that is very true. And to give you some indication, the attendance at the memorial at the Vista Center has increased markedly. I think it's probably to an extent because we have got nowhere around that we need help that we need support. The same thing with contributions have markedly increased, I think, because of the same reason that the general public realizes that we need help and they're helping. I noticed, and this was an addition to it, but I believe it's a Huey helicopter that now has been brought up and part of the property.

We had that idea and it's marvelous. Well, the Huey came from the National Guard in Santa Fe. They supplied it and repaired it. I want to tell you a little story about that later and brought it up, helped us set it up. One of the unusual things about it, we made contact with one of the pilots who flew it in Vietnam. He's very much Donald Florida. And on one mission, he had to lay down a smoke screen to facilitate evacuation of the wounded. And he had to take seven passes to get this smoke screen laid down because the wind was blowing. And accordingly, he was under intense fire for all seven passes.

There were 132 bullet holes in that Huey that we have out here. How many bullets holes? 132. And very McDonald received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for this particular mission. We have a complete history of the Huey. And what I just told is one of the most startling things about this history, but there are other equally unique events surrounding it. We're also planning on getting a Cobra helicopter, which is a gunship, to guard our Huey. Because in Vietnam, it was customary in case of a metal vacuumation with a Huey to accompany it with a Cobra gunship to protect it armor way back to the hospital. We used to ride with the legs hanging out of the Cobra and as they would just fly around the Huey region, marvelous, marvelous area.

Have you been surprised in recent years with, you know, I see no lack of interest in the memorials. You said, I would imagine in the next year or so, you see almost the doubling of the number of visitors here. And I think you're totally right. I think that we're on a ride right now. We're on just a rollercoaster heading for really positive things in the connection with the memorial. And I just don't know where. I just wanted to start over, but except I know it's going to go far and wide. And what are your favorite stories from the people? We all have them. People I've talked to here that have bumped into people that haven't seen in ages. As you say, I stopped in earlier to, you have a video here that not only goes back to Vietnam, but, you know, it's historical. Visitors love to stop here and bring their youngsters in better words than they could describe.

Because most of these men were very inward. People didn't always want to listen to them. It was very important. And so the video here, we have the sound in the background. People will sit there and they're so quiet, almost in awe. But it's interesting watching the youngsters who are here thinking about, that's what my father did. And that's what my grandfather did. What are your favorite stories of some of the people you've met? I repeatedly say to visitors, take back good memories and tell people about us. And I find out that there's precisely what they do in great numbers. And that is our best means of advertising is people telling people. And when that process becomes exponential, then everything breaks loose. And there really is a market increase in all of the things you're trying to do. And I feel, you can't really put a finger on it, but I feel that we are about reaching that point where the situation is becoming exponential. The exponential, I mean, 2 in 2 is 4, but you get 2,000 and 2,000 is 4,000.

And it decreases in that proportion. It becomes very, very important and very significant. Now, when how many of these young men come up, you're almost insisting on seeing Victor Ressville. I had someone come up and tapped me on the shoulder before and said, excuse me, are you Dr. Wessville? Well, if you're taking a nap, I'll say yes, but I didn't. I was very gracious about that. A lot of them insist on seeing you personally, don't they? They find they can talk to you. Right. And it's all right. I wherever I am, taking a nap regardless, I'm available. And yes, there are quite a few. I'm so much surprised to learn that I'm still here and still around. And I'm pleased, of course, but yes, it is true that they want to. It is quite unusual, but I don't have to introduce myself by now as they know who I am. We've had people that I think the Mexico has been fortunate.

This, of course, I see it even as more than just a memorial for the Vietnam veterans. We have veterans from all wars who love to come up here. Because of the respect shown to servicemen, I think that was helped a lot by General, the National Guard commander here, General Ed Bakker. And he went back and he took over the role as head of the National Guard Bureau, which at the time was the highest position held by an Hispanic in the nation. And he, if you walked into his office, it was like walking into an office in the Mexico. Many of them get fancy, but his office was in the Mexico. There were things there with the Batan Death March. When you go through that period, you go through the efforts of this country with people like the Jerry Murphy, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

We had the Hershey in Memorial. These people had come out of the Korean War, Colonel Bob Scott, who recently passed away. Marvelous backgrounds, but they had the same love for this that Vietnam veterans had to. We have a, officially, we recognize veterans of all wars as a test of two by a plaque up on their parking lot. We say special recognition to Vietnam veterans simply because that was where my son was. But we do, officially, as I say, by word of action, recognize Vietnam the returns of all wars throughout the history of America from the revolution through desert sand. What I noticed, you come up here to desert storm, desert sand. And one of the things that General Baca told me, and it was, I think, was based so much upon what you did here.

They said, no matter what we look at anymore, when we're discussing wars, the important thing is that we tried a pinpoint that no one will ever go through what the young men did coming back from Vietnam again. And they made that a point. As he said, I noticed when we had just small groups coming back from the Middle East, they would pick up the phone and say, no, come out with the families. Families would be there to welcome them. They never should come back again and go through with the young men. It did, who went over there. But I noticed this in the plaques you have around here. People had given you credit for making this first overture. That's got to make you feel special. Well, I think it's important to notice here that, yes, you're true. You're absolutely right. There are a number of plaques, and there are many more that we don't have room for.

But I think it did a test for the fact that the people of this nation do recognize the importance of the memorial here. You mentioned Ed Barker, General Barker. He is, by the way, his vice president, the new vice president of the board of directors, David King is the president. But one time, General Barker and I were in Washington, D.C. and there was a subway interruption. We had a hike of considerable distance. And on the way, standing on the street with Ed Barker, and when he learned who we were, he rushed out into the middle of the street to stop the traffic. Oh, and then marvelous. That's so touching. Well, I thought so at the time. And, you know, he just literally went out in the winter section and stopped traffic for us to pass. And that was sort of typical of the relations we've had with the American public. Well, the foundation now, you have a new board of directors for the foundation, right?

I believe. And how can, and I think there is no problem with, how can people get in touch with the foundation who are viewing this show today? The telephone number, after Memorial here, is 505-377-6900. Let me have that one more time. 377-6900. And that area code is 505. Right. And they can call for those who want to make contributions. You accept corporate contributions. I would definitely seek where we're really going all out for corporate donations right at the present time because we do need a considerable amount of money and reasonably quickly and that's one way of acquiring it. Look there in the time we have left. You've watched your dream form.

You've watched it mature. And now you're looking at the future. What message do you want to leave the audience we have today? I think the most important thing to remember is that the Vietnam Veteranist National Memorial, as we are officially called, under the auspices of the David Luxwell Veterans Foundation, is on a roll. We're going places and we invite the American public to help us do so. To go with you or help us. Right. And I should mention we will have some pictures views of the chapel because I had found it very touching when you try to explain to people. Someone will say, why don't you say those boots? You say, what? That's saving the boots. Let you know what those boots are like. What they've been through. And you remember the days that we come up here and people you'd suddenly find people. I found medals in the chapel, purple hearts that were left there by people,

fellows who had left their combat boots there. Some of the most precious things to them that they left here to remember, to remember others. And that is not, that's still an increase, hasn't it? It still happens. Let me tell you just two instances, very, very personal. One young man, Vietnam veteran, took a bracelet off his wrist. He wore it ever since Vietnam. And this, I'm not, I'm petulously handed it to him. He wanted it to go with him a while. Another one had a piece of currency, the Vietnam Army currency, that he'd been carrying for all his length of time, 30 years. And he wanted it to have, well, it, there's nothing of particular value, except it was of tremendous value to them because they had taken, it possessed all these years and value that highly.

Well that meant a lot to them, but Victor Westfowl, you mean an awful lot to us. Our guest today, Victor Westfowl, Dr. Victor Westfowl, who is the gentleman who put together with his concept, the Vietnam Memorial, and Angel Fire in the Mexico, it's a dream that is matured and a dream that will continue. I'm Ernie Mills and thank you for being with us on Report from Santa Fe. Ladies and gentlemen, you've been watching a program videotaped in August of 1999 with Ernie Mills and Dr. Victor Westfowl. Ernie Mills died on February 26, 2003. Next week, Report from Santa Fe will feature a memorial program about Ernie Mills, its founder.