By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Days before Vietnam Veteran Richard Rohde was set to attend Friday’s groundbreaking at Veterans Memorial Park & Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins Jr. Veterans Museum, he spoke of the impact education has “to improve the life of any Veteran.”
Rohde is co-leader of the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committee, which is led by Veteran Joe Eletto, who also planned to attend the Jan. 12 groundbreaking for Phase II of the Veterans Resource Center, which is part of the emerging Veterans Education & Cultural Center on park grounds.
“That Hillsborough County and the commissioners are going forward with these additions to the current park is just wonderful,” Eletto said. “It shows a great interest in our local Veterans and the general community to learn more about what Veterans have accomplished and sacrificed over the decades.”
More than 96,000 Veterans call Hillsborough County home, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans. The park’s Phase II expansion is funded by a $1.6 million state grant, augmented with local support.
A view from Veterans Memorial Park, looking out to the existing Veterans Resource Center
Moreover, Veteran groups have partnered with county officials to develop a master plan for the park overall, volunteering time and raising money and support for its monuments, markers, plaques and pavers as well as its additions, ceremonies, offerings and remembrances.
Indeed, members of the Riverview chamber’s military affairs committee, after their Friday meeting, were set to attend the 10 a.m. groundbreaking in Tampa, at 3602 U.S. 301 N.
The emerging Veterans Education & Cultural Center is set to feature a classroom theater and state-of-the-art displays, while the resource center grows to include space and offerings for Veterans and Veteran families to learn more, at no cost, about federal, state and local benefits.
“A lot of Veterans aren’t aware of what’s available,” Rohde said. The expanding resource center, he added, “is a big, concerted effort to improve the life of any Veteran,” regardless of their theater of military service.
As for the education element strong and growing at Veterans Memorial Park, Rohde said it can only add to the support a Veteran feels after tours of duty and a return to civilian life.
That was not an easy transition for Vietnam Veterans, including Rohde, who said he served “boots on the ground” in the mid-60’s.
“None of us who served felt at that time that they were there for the wrong reasons,” Rohde said. “We all believed patriotically that we were there for the right reasons.”
Coming home was not an easy affair for the Vietnam Veteran.
“We were told not to leave an airport or train station in uniform alone because people were not only spitting and throwing feces at us, they were trying to violently harm us,” Rohde said. “I’m one of the ones who had to come home early because my mother was dying. They pulled me out of the field in my uniform, and 26 hours later I was back in Cleveland, Ohio.”
What happened in detail he will not review, other than to say, “the harm’s been done and will never be corrected.” The past is the past, he added, and it’s time to move on. As Rohde put it, “We don’t want any Veteran going forward to ever have to suffer that again.”
The work now is to educate and to remember, and Rohde sees in Friday’s ribbon-cutting a “step in the right direction” as it pertains to educating Veterans about their benefits and educating the community at large about a soldier’s sacrifice. The belief underlying all park expansions, Rohde said, is “build it and they will come.”
“The enormous fellowship and financial backing something like this takes” is a tribute to Veteran camaraderie, Rohde said. “Here’s a brick-and-mortar example of what can be accomplished through the unity that has carried on.”