Juliana Auel lovingly remembers her father — a man who she says suffered and eventually died from horrors related to the Vietnam War.
Combat did not drive the Navy chaplain to his grave. Rather, she said, a combination of flashbacks, nightmares, withdrawal from his family and excessive drinking led to his death a few years ago.
“He became almost unrecognizable,” she said.
Carl Alfred Auel died at 67 in 1997.
Miss Auel of Reston was one of about 1,000 family members and friends who paid tribute yesterday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to men and women who organizers say died in circumstances related to the war that did not qualify them for addition to the Wall of Names.
The sixth annual “In Memory Day” ceremony marked a day of honoring nearly 1,400 men and women who died of diseases related to Agent Orange, suicide, excessive drinking or drug use and other noncombat problems linked to the Vietnam War.
On this sunny, dry spring morning, families and friends sobbed, waved miniature American flags and shared stories about their fallen loved ones at the event hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. They read aloud the names of this year’s inductees — 191 of them — and placed tributes at the base of the wall.
“It is such a watershed for people to say their loved one’s name,” said Kathryn Caucci, who lost her brother, Navy Lt. Thomas Francis Gillespie in 1997. He died at 54 after suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome.
“It is a way to heal,” she said, clutching a folded American flag given to her at her brother’s funeral.
Mr. Gillespie had been a Navy pilot.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger A. Brady noted the importance of honoring those who died in the ways these people did. He said the “In Memory” granite plaque — unveiled yesterday — reminds people that coming home from war is the end of combat for many, but for some it is the beginning of a new conflict.
“No human being participates in a war and comes away unchanged, and new conflicts arise from the transition from wartime experiences, sometimes horrific, to the realities of their new lives at home.”
Although most of the inductees died after the war, two died during the conflict. Air Force Sgt. Francis Turney died in 1970 when his Vietnam-bound aircraft crashed on takeoff in Anchorage, Alaska; and civilian David Agnew died in 1964 in a Saigon hotel blasted by a 200-pound bomb planted by the Viet Cong.
Miss Auel, who spoke at the event, said the Wall of Names is an appropriate place to honor those who died after suffering the effects of wartime service.
“He found some sense of peace at the wall,” she said of her father. “This was hallowed ground for him.”
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