The Tet Offensive, The Viet Cong and The Fall of Saigon are all memories that are faded in the memories of many American Baby Boomers along with the first moon launch, The Beatles Arrival in America and Woodstock. However, they are not forgotten by the young men of this nation who fought in the long and tumultuous Vietnam War. A contentious war that saw violent protests around the country and much division in Washington, it was a war where the enemy and those they were trying to liberate looked the same.
A long battle with seemingly no end, according to the National Archives and Records this great nation lost 58,220 young American men in combat. Many were mere boys when they were drafted or enlisted, seventeen and eighteen year old boys.
Larry Noon, a native Kings Park resident was one of those boys. He was front and center at the R.J.O. Auditorium Wednesday night speaking to throngs of friends and fellow soldiers about a recent book he penned: A Son’s Letters from Vietnam to His Mom. It has been forty years in the making.
“In 1965 I graduated high school, Leo Ostebo was my English teacher and homeroom teacher,” he said. Ostebo who runs the Kings Park Heritage Museum was the impetus for the book, he beckoned Noon over the years to put the letters together – to create a book that marks the life of one brave Kings Park soldier.
Noon graduated that same year Ostebo taught him and in October he enlisted for Vietnam after graduation.. “I decided to join the Marine Corp, this was about the time of the Tet Offensive,” he explained.
According to records in Wikipedia: The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam against the forces of South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. The name of the offensive comes from the Tết holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, when the first major attacks took place.
The communists launched a wave of attacks in the late night hours of 30 January in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones of South Vietnam. This early attack did not lead to widespread defensive measures. When the main communist operation began the next morning the offensive was countrywide and well-coordinated, eventually more than 80,000 communist troops striking more than 100 towns and cities. The offensive was the largest military operation conducted by either side up to that point in the war.
The initial attacks stunned the US and South Vietnamese armies and caused them to temporarily lose control of several cities, but they quickly regrouped to beat back the attacks, inflicting massive casualties on communist forces.
Noon having spent ten and half months in Nam found himself in the thick of the Tet Offensive.
“I have to say, I woke up in a good mood every day in Vietnam, the day might have SH*T but I always woke up in a good mood,” he added.
Noon has so many memories – many of them are not fathomable by those who did not fight in the Vietnam War
Unfortunately Noon suffered some severe physical injuries on March 25, 1969 and was taken away never to see the men he fought with again. In the years and decades following the war that shaped his and many other lives, he suffered physically and mentally. Unbeknownst to him until the last decade, he suffered from Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD). It turns out many veterans did and many of the friends he fought with.
“In 1999 with the help of the Internet a friend tracked me down and I got a phone call from him,” he said. That friend and veteran was Don Payton and he found out through Don that ten of the guys in his platoon got killed, his close friends, his brothers. The were killed right after Noon was airlifted to a hospital.
He is now in touch with some of his old crew and dozens upon dozens of Vietnam Veterans. Every year he visits the Washington Memorial on his motorcycle with some Kings Park friends. Today, Noon has had a great deal of treatment for his PTSD and is a powerful advocate for fellow veterans and a great friend to many he did not serve with but whom he helps with their PTSD.. “Vietnam was a horrible horrible place, we saw terrible things” he added.
Today Noon, is very active at the V.A. Hospital in Northport with the PTSD program. He is clean and sober, he skis, rides a Harley and is an avid golfer. He is the proud father of Michael who is in a five-year Master program at Sacred Heart and loving husband to Debbie.
“My life is great today, I’m glad I put this book together, I’m glad I’m able to share it here in Kings Park, my home town; Kings Park is a great town and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” he ended.
PART II – look for the second part of this story when we explore the book and the letters he wrote home to his mother Elizabeth Noon in Kings Park.