Their Lives Depended on Each Other

In searing detail and often with a catch in their throats, four New Canaan men who served their country in Vietnam discussed what they experienced during the war, recalling friends lost and lessons learned. 

Peter Langenus, who is an attorney today, served as a Captain in the US Army in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970; Richard Maynes who was in the US Army with the 101st Airborne Division and is today a principal in MAXT Advisory Services, LLC; Ed McSorley, who enlisted in the Marine Corp as a 17-year-old and has a 30-year career on Wall Street; and Jeb Walker, who is New Canaan's First Selectman and the recipient of a Bronze Star for his service with the US Army in Vietnam, were the participants in a panel discussion that was the centerpiece of the Vietnam Symposium held at New Canaan High School Wednesday morning.

Asked to recall their time in Vietnam during the war, the men spoke with a clarity that belied the passage of more than forty years. They told their high school audience about the deafening sound of bullets and grenades, unceasing rain and brutal heat, confusion, the lack of simple things like a shower or a beer and the pride and comradery of their fellow soldiers.

They recalled friends and colleagues who died by their side, and in the case of McSorley, who was wounded in the spring of 1968, his own brush with death. Telling students about his choice, at the age many of them are now, he said he chose to enlist rather than wait to be drafted as his brothers had, with the plan of taking advantage of the GI bill to finance a college education when he returned.

A student in the audience asked if they had a clear idea of the goals of the war. Walker said that he didn't think, "even the generals knew why we were there."

Langenus concurred and said the, "vacillation of the American Congress created great confusion and cost a lot of lives." He went on to say that what the Congress did in 1969 and 1970 was, "almost criminal --- what they did to the American soldier." He added that if given a choice of having dinner with a VietCong soldier against whom he had fought or a member of that Congress, he would choose his former enemy.

When asked what they were fighting for, McSorley said, "Each other." Walker agreed and Langenus said they knew, "their lives depended on each other."

Of the negative stereotypes of the American soldier of that time, Langenus said that they were not the misfits or "losers" portrayed by the anti-war movement. "We are the people who fought there," he said, nodding to his fellow panelists, and said the men he fought with were a microcosm of American society. 

Speaking of New Canaan's place in the history of this war, they noted that four New Canaan residents were killed in Vietnam. Each man in turn read the name of one of the fallen and told something about their lives.

Langenus told the students of coming upon a plaque in a cemetery on Valley Road. It was a memorial to Major Charles Austin who in 1967 was shot down over Vietnam and never found. He said he felt a special bond with this soldier missing in action because he had a college friend of the same age who was also shot down and never recovered.

In closing, Langenus read from a speech he said he has given before when asked about what he learned about life from his time as a soldier. He said they should appreciate life and make the most of all their opportunities. He concluded, "Every day is a good day when they're not shooting at you."