Jim McLefresh retired as an E-8 from the U. S. Air Force after twenty years with AA, AS, BS, MS & MA degrees. After retiring from the Air Force, he taught Intro to Physics at a High School. Later he taught AutoCAD and Graphic Design at a local University. He completed beta testing for Drone manufactures, software/equipment developers, cell phone manufactures, Autodesk and Corel.
From the University, Jim moved to the local County to run their material testing lab. From the Lab he moved into the Land Survey Department and later became the County’s GPS Surveyors. He retired from the county and now does contract work with other Civil Engineering/survey companies. He also wrote for several survey publications.
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Jim has shared three stories with us, please enjoy them.
Three Stories
Jim McLefresh
The Wall
Recently, I was asked if I could tell what I felt the first time I saw the Traveling Wall. Because of what took place while I was in Laos and events later in my life, I’d like to tell you the effect the wall had on me the first time I saw it.
I greeted the news that the traveling Viet Nam Memorial was going to be in town with extreme joy and happiness. At last, I could search for the names of my fellow Airman that I lost while serving in Vietnam and Laos.
I counted down each day until the wall was there. When it did arrive, I was like a small child the night before Christmas. I knew the wall was there, just waiting for me.
That afternoon I left work and quickly walked over to the see the wall. It was located only a few blocks away from my office. The closer I got, the faster I walked. With each step I took toward the wall, the more excited I became. At last, I could see it. The traveling wall was right there, just across the street. The Vietnam Memorial was here at last, in Spokane, Washington and I was on my way to see it. The Wall was just across the street and up the steps.
For some reason I stopped, I just couldn’t force myself to cross the street. I just couldn’t get any closer to the wall. I just stood there staring at the wall. All the pain, sadness and memories came rushing forward. I just leaned back, resting on a building, and started to cry. I tried to remember the names of each one of my friends that I lost those two years. Yet, for some reason I just couldn’t recall all their names.
After a while I slowly regained my composer and started to walk back to work. This time I wasn’t in a hurry to get back to work, you see, this time I wasn’t walking alone, all the friends that I lost were there, walking with me.
Once more the Wall arrived in Spokane. This time I was able to approach it. Again, all the emotions and memories were overwhelming. As I walked away my face was covered with tears. I stopped and sat on one of the benches and just staired at the Wall. After a while, I slowly walked back to my car, sat down, and cried.
Honor Guard
Recently, I had the honor of speaking at the grave side service for my Mother-in-Law. When I first said I was willing to do this I had forgotten where her service would be and the many memories this cemetery had.
It had been many years since I had been back to the cemetery where my mother-in Law’s service was held. While I was standing there talking about her life. I started to sense each one of the soldiers that I had provided Honors to standing beside me. The longer I talked, the more my eyes began to water. Yet no one really understood why my eyes were draining the way they were. Yes, some were for my Mother-in-Law, but most were for those young soldiers standing with me. I may be crazy, but I could hear their voices saying, “Thank you, Jim” over and over.
During the Vietnam years, the team had at least one or two burials a week. Almost every time, after a service, when I would return to work, someone would always ask me, “Why do you do all that extra drill on your own time?” I would always reply, “Because those Soldiers earned the Honors the team provided them.”, “None of them asked to die so young.”
Two Mistakes
Rocket and mortar attacks frequently happened at night
There were two events, embedded in my mind from Vietnam and were extremely difficult for me to overcome. The first one was the reflex of running to the bunker.
The small town where I was living back home had a volunteer fire department. They were always called to service by a similar type of siren that alerted us of a rocket attack. I would quickly wake up when I impacted the bedroom wall running to the bunker.
When I first arrived in Vietnam, I worked the night shift. This had an advantage, most of the rocket attacks were at night. The sad part was you did not know if your barracks would still be standing when you got off work. That was the reason I always found it difficult making friends in the barracks, you didn’t know if the building or your fellow airman would be alive in the morning. It happened to my barracks five times while I was there. The first time was three days after I first arrived in Vietnam.
The other event is easy to understand. Fireworks.
On the first Fourth of July after I had been back, a coworker talked me into going with his family to a local display. We sat down on a blanket and waited for it to get dark. The first aerial bomb went off. “Ka-Boom.” I told myself, “You’ll be OK.” Then the next one went off. I started to get a little excited and realized I had made a grave mistake. The third one went off and that was it. I was on my feet and in a full run. Have you ever tried to run between a field full of people sitting on the ground, it is not all that easy? I do not remember how far it was back to my room on the base, but I was there when they came looking for me.
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