Columbia minister remembers friend lost in Vietnam

Four decades after the Vietnam War ended, James S. Cooper still thinks of the friend he lost and how the young man’s death affected their community in south Georgia.

Every week, Cooper would play basketball with a group of teens, including the gritty young man they called “Hicks.’’

But one day, Hicks was drafted into the military. Four months later, he was dead.

“This was the first time I encountered anybody coming home (from) war to receive their final resting place in our community,’’ said Cooper, a retired Army chaplain who now lives in Columbia. “That was my playmate who played in the park with us.’’

“Many of us attended that funeral because that was our playmate, but it really made us think seriously about, not only life, but war itself.’’

Cooper made his remarks Monday at a Memorial Day Service that paid particular attention to those killed in the Vietnam conflict.

Cooper, the keynote speaker at Monday’s 15th annual Piney Grove Cemetery Memorial Day service, said the memories of the men and women who died in Vietnam deserve the same respect as those who died in other wars.

“The sad thing about all of this is the attitude that our country had about the Vietnam War itself,’’ said Cooper, a regional elder with the AME Church.

America’s war in Vietnam grew from a small political conflict in the 1950s into an all-consuming effort that heavily divided America in the 1960s over its wisdom and purpose. Many believed the war was an unnecessary fight over ideology.

Caught in the middle were soldiers, sailors, Marines and pilots who experienced Vietnam first-hand. Many didn’t make it. By the time Saigon fell to the Communists in 1975, more than 58,000 American lives had been lost.

Nearly 900 from South Carolina were among those who died.

Eight of those are buried at Piney Grove cemetery, a small graveyard at the corner of two busy streets in the Harbison area of Columbia.

Some of their relatives attended Monday’s services that not only included Cooper’s speech, but a poem dedicated to the Vietnam conflict and a reading of the names of veterans buried at Piney Grove.

The event’s program listed 24 facts about Vietnam, some of which organizers said may not be widely known. Among the facts, attributed to the Armed Forces History Museum:

– Nearly 1,000 soldiers died on their first day there.

– Thirty-one sets of parents lost two sons in the war.

– The average infantry soldier experienced 240 days of combat each year.

Christine R. Burton, who organized Monday’s service, said the remembrance was intended to honor the casualties of all wars, but it was important to highlight Vietnam. Of the men and women who did return to the U.S., many undeservedly suffered scorn or indifference about their service because the war had been so unpopular, she and Cooper said.

“It’s like we were convinced these people came back from Vietnam as potheads and made the country the Hippie generation,’’ Burton said. “The facts state clearly this was the most educated group of military people we had. They were strong.’’

This story was originally published May 25, 2015 at 3:14 PM.