THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410020056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HANOI, VIETNAM LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Former U.S. Marine Lewis B. Puller took his own life before finishing his work to ease the emotional pain he and others, both Americans and Vietnamese, shared from the Vietnam War.
His friends continued his efforts, and on Friday they broke ground for an elementary school named in Puller's honor in Quang Tri province, one of Vietnam's most war-ravaged regions.
Puller lost both his legs and parts of both hands when he stepped on a land mine while fighting in the Vietnam War in 1968.
He wrote eloquently about his experiences in Vietnam and his struggle with depression and alcoholism after the war in ``Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet,'' which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
He committed suicide in May.
``I can think of no better symbol for Lew Puller than a school for elementary children,'' said Edward Timperlake, co-director of the Vietnamese Memorial Association, who came to Vietnam for the ceremony. ``He believed in this project. He talked with us often about it.''
Puller and seven other Americans formed the nonprofit group two years ago to help bridge the gulf still separating the former enemies. He returned to Vietnam in August 1993, his first visit since the war ended, and the idea for the school was born.
Quang Tri province was chosen for the site of the school, to be built with contributions from U.S. companies and individuals. It straddles the former demilitarized zone that once separated communist North Vietnam from pro-Western South Vietnam.
Timperlake said the school will give 365 children an opportunity to learn in a modern setting - a rarity in a province ravaged by some of the war's fiercest fighting.
``This school is only the beginning of what we hope will be a long string of projects,'' Terry Anderson, another project founder, said in a telephone interview. Anderson, a former Marine combat reporter in Vietnam, was held hostage for seven years by Shiite Muslim guerrillas in Beirut, Lebanon, where he was chief Middle East correspondent of the The Associated Press.
The school is to be completed by April 30, 1995, the 20th anniversary of the fall of former South Vietnam. Timperlake said the school was a symbol of hope for the future.
Puller would surely agree.
``I came here thinking that we were going to build a pile of stones,'' he said during his 1993 visit. ``I'm leaving thinking that we'll build something that will endure.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Lewis B. Puller won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his book
``Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet.''
by CNB