Marshall resident and veteran Dave Kabes, at right, spoke to Vietnam veterans Karl Porisch, Dan Markell, Rich Maurer and George Seldat, after a panel discussion Saturday. The talk focused on the experiences of area veterans as they served in an unfamiliar country.

MARSHALL — Bill Palmer set the scene for the people gathered at the Lyon County Museum. He asked the audience to picture the sights, sounds and smells of Vietnam during the Vietnam War – and then to imagine the reactions of the young American men arriving in an unfamiliar place.

“Put yourselves in the boots of the troops,” Palmer said.

The personal stories of Vietnam veterans were in focus during a panel discussion Saturday at the museum. Five area veterans, including Dan Dybsetter of Porter, Dan Markell of Green Valley, and Rich Maurer, Karl Porisch and George Seldat of Marshall, all spoke about what they experienced.

“There’s nothing special about me,” Dybsetter told the audience. “We’re just sharing a story of what we saw.”

The panel discussion was held in connection with the museum’s new exhibit, “The Vietnam War and Lyon County.”

“This exhibit is not about war. It’s about the people who went to war,” said Palmer, who led the discussion.

The five panelists all served in Vietnam during the same window of time, between 1968 and 1971. However, they all had different experiences. Dybsetter served as an RTO (radio telephone operator) in an infantry battalion of the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta.

“Basically, we were patrolling the delta for VC (Viet Cong),” Dybsetter said. The patrols were often fighting an enemy they couldn’t see, he said. “You’d get shot at, and you never saw them.”

Markell served as a Chinook helicopter crew chief, in transport missions in the Mekong Delta. There was no “typical day” for the crew, he said. Sometimes they might be flying for 12 hours a day, or they might be on standby, Markell said.

Maurer served as a radio-teletype operator as part of the 326th Engineer Battalion, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division based at Camp Eagle in the northern region of South Vietnam.

Porisch was the lone Marine among the panelists, and he spoke of his experiences as a Sea Knight helicopter pilot in the northern region of South Vietnam. “We flew almost every day,” he said.

Seldat served as a military intelligence and security analyst in the central part of South Vietnam. He said part of his mission included traveling to forward fire bases to gather information. “We were outside the base most of the time,” Seldat said.

When the panelists arrived in Vietnam, they didn’t necessarily know the people in the units they would be serving with.

“Most of us were replacements,” Seldat said. However, the Army wasn’t replacing whole units of soldiers at a time, he said.

“You didn’t know a soul,” Dybsetter said. “But guys were good about that.”

Although Vietnam is often portrayed as being covered in jungle, the panelists said they experienced a variety of environments and climates. The Mekong Delta was hot and humid. But panelists who were stationed further north in Vietnam, and in the highlands, said it could also get cold there. During the monsoon season, it was always wet and rainy.

In addition to combat, panelists faced other physical hazards. Seldat and Dybsetter said soldiers faced ringworm, “jungle rot” and sores on their feet from the damp conditions.

When he returned home and attended what is now Southwest Minnesota State University, Markell said, “I didn’t see any animosity here in Marshall.” While his experiences in Vietnam will stay with him, Markell said he was proud to serve.

“We were there because our country asked us to be there,” Markell said.