Honoring the fallen: Global travelers pay respects to Westminster Seven and reflect on beauty and complexity of Vietnam

Photos courtesy of Dr. Mark Boulton

Just after the world reflected on the 50^th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, six Westminster students flew to Vietnam and immersed themselves in the rich culture and complex history of the country that experienced prolonged conflict throughout the 20^th century.

Alec Gorman, Colton Goodwin, Juan Jackson, Cooper Thompson, Phyllis Beck and Max Diener participated in Westminster’s third Vietnam War Travel Study Course that took place May 13-27.

The travel course followed a semester of concentrated study on the subject.

Dr. Mark Boulton, Professor of History, and Dr. Nichol Allen, Assistant Professor of Museum Studies and History, taught the course. Accompanying them on the trip were 12 faculty, staff, alumni, veterans and friends.

The Westminster travelers landed in Ha Noi on May 15 after first flying from Houston to Taipei. From there, guides from Vietnam Battlefield Tours kept the group constantly on the move from city to city.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Mark Boulton

What began for students last winter as a traditional two-credit course using typical textbooks and online materials culminated in the additional one-credit, 14-day overseas class that was anything but typical.

The trip followed in the footsteps of the 2018 Vietnam Travel Course that focused on honoring the Westminster Seven ― heroes from the College who lost their lives during the Vietnam War:

• S. Army First Lieutenant Ross W. Livermore, ’67 ΒΘΠ, from Germantown, Tennessee, who was killed on Jan. 4, 1969, in Dinh Tuong
• USAID Deputy Chief for Refugees Claude L. Curtice, ’52 IND, from St. Louis, Missouri, who died on Jan. 30, 1968, in Da Nang
• S. Marine PFC Christopher Podmaniczky, ’66 IND, from St. Louis, Missouri, who was killed on March 21, 1967, in Quang Nam
• S. Navy HN Patrick Lawrence Purdin, ’67 IND, from Long Beach, California, who was killed on Nov. 22, 1969, in Quang Nam
• U.S.  Army First Lieutenant Harmon L. Remmel III, ’65 ΣΧ, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who was killed on Feb. 7, 1968, in Buon Blech
• S. Marine First Lieutenant Philip Howard Sauer, ’65 IND, from Coronado, California, who was killed on March 24, 1967, in Quang Tri and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for heroism April 24, 2018
• S. Army Captain John Vernon Taylor Jr., ’62 ΔΤΔ, from Berkeley, Missouri, who was killed on Nov. 4, 1967, in Kontum

This year, students placed stuffed blue jays and flowers at the sites where the former Westminster students died. Each one of the fallen, including the location where they lost their lives, was thoroughly researched by Westminster history students prior to the 2018 Vietnam Travel Course.

Alumnus Mike Lavin ’67, who served in Vietnam, discusses his experience in-country to soldiers in Hanoi. Read more about Lavin’s experience on Westminster’s news site. Photo courtesy of Second Floor Media.

Beck, a rising senior from Arcadia, Missouri, explained that honoring the Westminster Seven this summer was a moving experience never to be forgotten. “It was an eye-opening experience to see what those young men went through during their deployment,” Beck added.

In addition to visiting battlefields and other famous, war-related locations, the Westminster group traveled to more than 20 different tourist sites throughout six cities in Vietnam, from the Ha Long Bay to the Marble Mountain area to the Perfume River to the Cao Dai Holy See Temple in Ho Chi Minh City.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Mark Boulton

For Boulton, the most meaningful part of the journey took place on the bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City, when the veterans on the trip asked the Westminster students what they learned about the Vietnam War from seeing the country in person.

 “Each of our students took the microphone and owned the moment,” Boulton reflected. “One of the veterans got quite emotional at the fact that we still cared to learn their story. That brought home the importance of this trip for me, both in terms of its educational value for our students and for allowing us to honor our veterans.”