Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu
Date: 11/13/96
Contact: Christina Chapple or Karen Fulda (543-1981)
Editors: Photo accompanies release -- Please note local interest
(Note: This feature was written by Athena Dupre, an assistant professor of
communication at Southeastern Louisiana University. Dr. Dupre is a member of the City of
Hammond's Moving Wall publicity committee. The SLU Public Information Office is happy to
help the committee distribute information to the media. C. Chapple)
WAR MEMORIES INSPIRE UPCOMING SALUTE TO VETERANS
HAMMOND -- It wasn t hailing the day 19-year-old Philip A. Monteleone landed in
Vietnam, 10,000 miles away from his hometown of Hammond, La. The rattling sound was enemy
bullets pelting the plane s belly. The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing without
tires.
One time somebody told me that things can t get any worse. Then they did, Monteleone
recalls. The statement might sum up his experience as a young Marine fighting in the Vietnam War.
Things got worse.
Now, 21 years later, the reverse may be true. Just when it seems things won t get better, they
do. Vietnam veterans who have lived for many than 20 years in the chill of a welcome home that never
occurred may be in store for some long delayed public support.
Because of Monteleone and others efforts, Hammond will host an exhibit of the Vietnam
Memorial Moving Wall, Dec. 5 through 8 at the War Memorial Student Union of Southeastern
Louisiana University. The traveling exhibit is part of a local holiday salute to the military past and
present. Visitors may see the wall free of charge 24 hours a day and are welcome to touch the exhibit
and make etchings of the names carved in it. Also planned is a Hammond Christmas Parade Dec. 7,
marshaled by Maj. Gen. James Livingston, a retired Marine decorated with three
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MONTELEONE -- Add One
Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars and a Congressional Medal of Honor.
There has never per se been a function to welcome back the vets. And we ve been back a long
time, Monteleone declares. His own 1992 visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D. C.
brought back memories.
Monteleone spent 11 months in DaNang, Vietnam, an area of heavy fighting during the thick
of the war years. DaNang is located in central Vietnam, near the South China Sea coast. Monteleone
spent part of 1965 and 1966 near the U.S. airfield there, in a tent camp surrounded by razor-edged
barbed wire, which didn t always hold the Vietcong soldiers at bay.
The Vietcong would attack at night, every night, he remembers. They would try every
possible way to infiltrate.
As a crew chief with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115, Monteleone s job was to launch F4
Phantom aircraft and defend the U.S. airfield at night. So heavy was fighting that aircraft were
launched from the base every 40 seconds.
Added to the terror of war was the bewilderment of many soldiers, who didn t understand the
war they were drafted to wage. At that point, I had no idea what this was all about, why we were
there, or the magnitude of what was happening in South Asia, Monteleone remembers.
Nor was he prepared for the hostility which would greet him and others when they returned
home. People spit on us and called us baby killers, he remembers. There were no parades for us.
In the year he had been gone, Monteleone had changed and so had the country.
To give you an idea, when we left, the big song was My boyfriend s back and you re gonna
be in trouble... When we came back it was Wild Thing! he exclaims.
Upon returning, the only welcome home Monteleone received was from his mother and a
Marine drill sergeant who told his troops as Monteleone disembarked in San Diego: I want you
people to see real Marines, defenders of our nation.
Back in the once familiar environs of Hammond, Monteleone tried to adjust. He didn t fit into
the 60s drug scene culture and felt suddenly bereft without the responsibilities he upheld as a
Marine sergeant.
In Vietnam, I was in charge of a $14 million aircraft. I knew everything about it. It was
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MONTELEONE -- Add Two
like my bicycle. I loved it. I had my name on it, he recalls. Then I came back to Hammond. To
what? I began to lose all self-esteem.
Monteleone joined the Louisiana State Police force and served for 20 years, retiring in 1987.
He worked in drug enforcement and personally protected Govs. Edwin Edward and Dave Treen. He
now owns an earth-moving business in Hammond and relaxes in the peacefulness of a 60-acre farm
home.
The Vietnam Wall project is not Monteleone s first or last effort on behalf on veterans. He
helped collect money for the Vietnam Memorial in the Superdome and hopes to see the erection of a
Vietnam Memorial in Hammond in the years to come.
I m trying to get Hammond on the map as the Patriotic Capital, he declares, smiling.
Monteleone says he is heartened by the public s changing regard for Vietnam veterans. He notes that
young people are particularly interested and respectful. With this project, everyone I ve talked to, if
they re not willing to give some money, they re willing to do anything I ask them to do.
He urges young people to recognize Vietnam s lesson that government is not always justified
in its actions, and citizens can and should speak out when they disagree.
Back then, we were pawns. We were just sheep loaded into a shoot and we went, he
declares. You know what we got for it? We lost 58,000 people for one thing. . . . My biggest concern
is for this to be an education for young people, not just four days of festivities.
What does the Vietnam Wall symbolize? When I first saw the wall [in Washington, D.C.], it
was like a big surgeon general warning that should have said, Warning: Unnecessary wars will be
hazardous to America s youth, Monteleone says.
The memorial has since come to symbolize even more to him. Monteleone says the wall
represents a means of healing and a way of celebrating memories. It s not a celebration of death, but
a celebration of life. The people whose names are on it will live in our hearts forever.
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