Vietnam Veterans Seek New Home for Boats Used in War

Posted

A veterans group in Chehalis that restores Vietnam-era patrol boats is currently looking for a new space to rent.

The Gamewardens Association Vietnam to Present is a national association for Navy veterans of the Vietnam War. For the past three years, the Northwest Chapter has rented space from the Port of Chehalis. They keep two Vietnam-era patrol boats in the space: one from the Navy and one from the Army.

“We like Chehalis because it’s halfway between Seattle and Portland,” said President of the Northwest Chapter Steve Sumrall. “So we have the Washington veterans and the Oregon veterans that can come halfway and meet. From here our activities go both directions. We go to Portland, we go to Seafair, we go to Tacoma for the Maritime Festival, things like that.”

The boats are called PBRs, or Patrol Boat Riverines. The Navy used them in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971. They were the most common vessel in the River Patrol Force, Task Force 116.

“This boat, we put it into the water a couple times a year at the Rose Festival for the whole week,” Sumrall said. “We take people out for quick boat rides, and it’s perfectly operational, as it was in Vietnam. The guns, they don’t let us fire live guns anymore, but we have our mockup guns that look great.”

The group acquired the Navy PBR about 15 years ago and began restoring it.

“The Naval Historical Society was going to destroy it,” Sumrall said. “When we found out about that we offered to take it and take care of it for them. So we’ve had it for about 15 years now and it’s in a lot better shape now than when they had it.”

The group has a work party every month when the veterans come to Chehalis for a day or two to work on the boats. Mac McCormick used to do maintenance on the patrol boats in Vietnam. He joined the veterans group last year.

“I joined because we’re a bunch of old guys with gray hair, but the stories we tell are a lot of fun,” McCormick said. “It brings back a lot of memories.”



The veterans all said that when they came back from Vietnam, it was a stressful time.

“We were not received with open arms when we came back,” said Jamie Welsh, who joined the group five or six years ago.

McCormick said when he came home, he was counseled to take off his uniform. Sumrall had similar remarks.

“My first time in the parade was down in Albany,” Sumrall said. “I was invited by the guys to go down there and we were on the parade. People were yelling up at us and they said, ‘We love you guys,’ and I emotionally lost it, because that wasn’t the way we were treated when we came back from Vietnam. Now the public sees us in a different light and they appreciate us. Back then, it was a very difficult time because there were a lot of anti-war movements.”

Peter Lahmann, vice president of the Northwest Chapter, said he believes it is important to keep these memories alive. Part of that is training the next generation how to maintain the boats.

“We look for volunteers for maintenance,” Lahmann said. “I mean it takes a lot of maintenance to keep these running, and if there are young people that would like to learn, we would be happy to teach them things. That’s the only way that we’re going to keep the memory of this alive, is if we can get younger people involved.”

This Saturday, the group is holding an informal open house between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. They’re inviting the public to their space at 123 Habein Road, where they work on the PBRs. During the open house, they will have facility tours and hot dogs. They’re asking visitors to bring a can of food for the food bank.

“Every year, we invite the public to come and see what we’re doing,” Sumrall said. “We want to let them know that we have a historical boat from Vietnam and let them see it and let them hear some of our war stories. We want to have an interaction with the public if we can and keep our history alive. That’s really the purpose of us getting together as veterans and keeping the boat going and doing the history, because if we don’t stay on it, it’s just going to be passed over.”