Vietnamese, U.S. vets begin trans-Vietnam bike journey
Vietnamese, U.S. vets begin trans-Vietnam bike journey
HANOI (AP): Nearly 80 riders, half of them veterans of the
Vietnam War, began a 1,200-mile (1,920-kilometer) bicycle journey
yesterday from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.
The 16-day journey, called the Vietnam Challenge, has been
organized by a U.S.-based group to help heal the wounds of the
war, which left 58,000 Americans and some 3 million Vietnamese
dead before it ended two decades ago.
The riders include about 40 U.S. and Vietnamese veterans,
able-bodied and disabled, and others who simply want to take
part.
Greg Lemond, three-time Tour de France winner and twice world
champion, said his participation in the Vietnam Challenge would
be "one of the most memorable events of my life."
"It's a beautiful event, a healing event," said Jerry
Stadtmiller, 50, a former U.S. Marine who lost his right eye in a
1968 battle and now counsels veterans suffering from post-war
trauma in San Diego, California.
"We are able to spend time with ourselves and spend time with
other veterans both American and Vietnamese," he said shortly
before the riders set off from the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, who
led the war against the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese.
Vietnamese veterans taking part echoed some of the same
sentiments of their onetime enemies.
"It is a great opportunity to reconcile Vietnamese and
Americans, to leave the past behind us and look forward to the
future," said Tran Van Son, 49, a former North Vietnamese soldier
who lost his right leg about the same time as Stadtmiller was
wounded.
Son said he once harbored great hatred against American
soldiers. A U.S. bombing raid on Hung Yen Province killed seven
members of his family and wounded three others.
The event is sponsored by World TEAM - The Exceptional Athlete
Matters - Sports, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based non-profit
organization that specializes in sporting events for disabled
people.
Twenty-seven of the 55 American riders are Vietnam War
veterans. More than 20 Vietnamese are participating, about half
of them veterans.
In a ceremony Wednesday, World TEAM Sports vice chairman Peter
Kiernan presented a check for US$200,000 to Hanoi's Bach Mai
Hospital to upgrade and renovate its rehabilitation department
and install a new prosthetics clinic.
During a heavy bombing campaign conducted by the United States
in the Christmas season in 1972, many buildings at the hospital
were destroyed and many staff and patients were killed or
wounded.
"I have never seen as many Americans together for purposes of
good will and friendship as I have today," Vietnam Veterans of
America Foundation head Bobby Muller said at the ceremony.
"Americans linger as ghosts on the landscape of this country,
but when you ride along this country, you can dispel that feeling
and it will provide a real live present of solidarity,
friendship, love and compassion," Muller said.
Stadtmiller said he had been living with guilt since he killed
a rifle-carrying Vietnamese boy during the war.
"The guilt is haunting me for the past 30 years. But I am
releasing more and more. It is also a giving memory. When I talk
to young children I tell them how cruel, ugly and terrorizing war
is," Stadtmiller said.
"I talked to some American Vietnam veterans who came back to
Vietnam and they said when they come back they have such peace in
their hearts. That's why I wanted to come," he said.