We have been learning about Porter’s Dan Dybsetter and his Vietnam service. Dan graduated Canby High School in 1963, graduated from SMSU in 1968, and was drafted into the Army. The Army trained him as an infantryman and deployed him to Vietnam in March 1969.

Dan served as an RTO (radio telephone operator) in an infantry battalion of the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta. His Infantry Company did a lot of combat patrolling, but he was also able to get away on R&R. (Rest and Recuperation)

“In the fall of ’69 I did an R&R to Bangkok and then in the spring of ’70 I did one to Sydney, Australia. Bangkok — there’s an interesting story. I bought a tour where they take you to temples. We went to a town east of Bangkok with this big, beautiful, Buddhist temple. Forty-five years later we hosted an exchange student from Thailand. She brought a family photo album and one of her pictures was of her town. In the background was this same temple. Would you believe that was the town where our exchange student grew up?

He explained how he kept in touch with his family and how one gets in trouble with Mom while serving in a war zone.

“When you’d mail letters from Vietnam, you didn’t need postage. You’d just write “Free” in the upper corner. I used to write fairly often, but one time I didn’t write for going on two weeks. I got the letter from Mother, really worried, so I thought I should hurry up and write a letter.”

Dan received relief from combat patrolling as they neared year’s end.

“After about nine months they rotated you out of the field. Seeing as how I was out of the field, I wanted to get home because my dad’s health wasn’t well. I extended 60 days in Vietnam so that when I got back to the States I didn’t have to do any more time afterward. It almost backfired because I should have left the 23rd of March, instead I left the 23rd of May. That was the year Nixon sent troops into Cambodia in May and my company got sent to Cambodia. Fortunately, because I was leaving in two weeks, I didn’t have to go with Alpha Company. They lost a lot of guys in Cambodia.”

When Dan hit his extended return date in May 1970 he rode a truck convoy to Bien Hoa Air Base where he boarded his “Freedom Bird.”

“I remember you got on that airplane and it was really quiet. When the plane left the runway, there was a huge cheer in the plane. (Dan’s voice tightened with emotion) When we got back to Oakland Army Base, you got your steak dinner.”

The returning troops received new uniforms before they boarded their flights home.

“The guy was getting my uniform ready and it had sergeant’s stripes on there. I said, ‘I’m a Spec 4.’ ‘No,’ he said. Captain Todd had put me in for promotion. I never got it in Vietnam, but I had sergeant’s stripes on my uniform when I got to Oakland and I also had an Army Commendation Medal for Valor. I had been put in for that for the night in the canal when they needed the radio to call in artillery, but nothing ever happened. Medals didn’t mean a thing to us at the time. The only reward we wanted was a ride on the “Freedom Bird” home and we wanted to ride in the passenger compartment, not in the cargo compartment.”

Dan boarded his flight home wearing a sergeant’s uniform and a decoration for Valor in combat.

“I didn’t encounter protesters at the airport or on the way. I was fortunate. Some guys did. I still have the airline ticket in the pocket of my uniform. On that flight not one person spoke to me except the stewardess, who asked, ‘What do you want?’ When I got back here, people were welcoming, but it was years before I put that uniform back on. I don’t think I ever really got over that. (Dan’s voice tightened with emotion)

Dan reflected on his readjustment to life after his Vietnam service.

“I was older, so I think I was better able to process the fact that this (combat service) was not a normal thing. When I got back, I just wanted to start farming and I never looked back.”

Dan explained that life soon changed in a very good way when he met Terry Kelke.

“It rained one day. It was in the fall of 1970, just after I got back from Vietnam and I had started farming. It was Halloween and a bunch of guys I knew were going to a Halloween party. I said, ‘I’m going to stay home and plow.’ But it rained that day, so I hurriedly put together a costume and went to the Halloween party. Terry was a home economics teacher, doing her practice teaching in Canby. She had been invited to this Halloween party because there were a lot of young teachers at Canby at that time. So, she went to the Halloween party and that changed history for us.”

Dan and Terry have been life partners ever since that rainy Halloween. Thank you for your Vietnam service, Dan. Welcome home!

Please visit the Lyon County Museum’s new exhibit about the Vietnam War and Lyon County. If you would like to share Vietnam experiences or help with the exhibit, please contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com