When George Heiges stepped down from Director of the Office of Veteran Affairs for Lycoming County in June of 2019, I felt the position would be impossible to fill. In Director Heiges’ eight-year term, he had established Lycoming County as not only having one of the best Veterans Affairs Office in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but THE best. His office brought in more funds for veterans than any other county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 2013 to 2018!
In his place, a 72-year-old Vietnam vet named Mike McMunn stepped up. Stepping up to fill an impossible role, or so I thought. However, Mike hit the ground running. In June 2019, he assisted Judge Nancy Butts in initiating a new Veterans Court in Lycoming County. As Judge Butts noted when the court was established, “We want to honor our country as well as their service but also recognize they have specific mental health drug and alcohol criminal justice needs that we want to address as well.”
The key ingredient for the Veterans Court was veterans serving as mentors to stand alongside those going through a judicial process. The one who organized these mentors was Mike McMunn. “We’re not social workers. We’re not the probation officers. We’re not counselors. We’re just other veterans who want to help veterans.”
For quite some time, the “we” that Mike McMunn was referring to was “he.” For several years, he was the one and only mentor. It speaks of Mike’s tenacity and sincerity that kept the program going, and today there are now five mentors serving in that capacity. He is a man who does things with his heart as much as his head.
In the 1960s, US Army Captain Mike McMunn was stationed in West Germany, but with the Vietnam War in full force, he requested to be transferred there. He got his request and was subsequently assigned to the Military Assistance Command (MACD) as an advisor with the South Vietnamese Army. His responsibility was to assist these nationals in modern military tactics and also to prepare them for the time when the American forces would be withdrawn. Mike developed a very different attitude toward the Vietnamese than many vets who served in that war. He lived with the Vietnamese, learned their language and customs, and grew to greatly respect them.
It had been over fifty years since he left Vietnam, but there was always a siren call beckoning him to return. For years he imagined going back, but it never seemed practical. When a very good friend, Al Sever, who had served for 33 months in Vietnam as a helicopter gunner, suggested he and Mike go backpacking in Vietnam in March of this year, Mike was already packing up.
The trip was literally a dream for Mike. He and Al began by flying into Hanoi and, from there, went south, staying in hostels and just taking in whatever sparked their interest, eventually getting to Saigon, where they departed. They were stunned by how modern the country had become. Half a century ago, they left a third-world country that was terribly polluted and primitive in many ways. The country Mike and Al discovered today was incredibly different. Everything is new. There are skyscrapers, international businesses, department stores selling Rolex and Gucci products, and nice roads packed with buses and zillions of scooters. They found lovely villages, beautiful temples, and a very peaceful country.
Mike emphasizes that he is not naive; the country still is a communist, socialist country. He never saw a newspaper or magazine, suggesting that information is still quite restrictive. But the people do not seem to mind; they accept their government as it has given them a better way of life.
America has also changed as well since then. Vietnam tore our country apart; many returned broken, battered, and beleaguered. At the Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting on March 23rd, a proclamation was made recognizing March 29th as National Vietnam War Veterans Day, a national observance that recognizes veterans who served in the US military during the Vietnam War. It was on that day, 50 years ago, that the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was disestablished and also the day the last US combat troops departed Vietnam.
Lingering effects are not just psychological but also physical. Mike McMunn noted that many Vietnam vets that come to his office have medical issues related to Agent Orange. Sadly, he also saw that the country of Vietnam is likewise dealing with this affliction on a much, much greater scale. The scars of that war live on.
