DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120497

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN 

        STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   79 lines

VETERANS DAY: VETS REFLECT ON LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH WAR

The Veterans Day parade stretched out before Silas Smith on Tuesday afternoon with all the familiar pageantry: khaki-clad boy scouts marching behind flags, stern looking military men with eyes fixed forward to the red, white and blue, and the snap and roll of marching drummers.

Smith, a 78-year-old veteran of America's Pacific campaign during World War II, took it in from the comfort of his wheelchair and thought back to his days as a young Army cook.

``It was all right, I guess,'' he said, the years having dulled the memory of battles for Bataan and Manila. ``I fed the officers and I fed the regulars. I had an important job, you know. I fed people, and I got to eat all I wanted.''

Smith, who today lives at Lynn Shores Manor nursing home, and other patriots celebrated the sacrifices, both great and small, by veterans of the World Wars, wars in Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.

Caught up in the pageantry was Chris M. Gunter, a bright 10-year-old who devotes his spare time to Cub Scout Pack 364. He was quick to appreciate the parade, pronouncing it ``really neat'' before thinking a bit longer about the larger significance. ``It's exciting to see all the people here for the veterans and all that they have done for us,'' Gunter said. ``I want to be a jet pilot. It would be pretty exciting to fly and to help your country by doing something like that.''

This year's sponsoring group was the National Sojourners, which received help from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. About 75 marching units took part, along with roughly 2,000 Boy Scouts.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Sutherlin of the California State Military Reserve and national president of National Sojourners gave the keynote address. He reminded the audience that no one loves peace more than a veteran, and no one hates war more than someone who has been in one.

To be born free, he said, is an accident. To live free is a privilege. To remain free is an obligation.

Congressman Owen B. Pickett reminded those in attendance that freedom is not free and that events like a Veterans Day parade should give people reason to pause and think what kind of country the United States would be were it not for the untold sacrifices made by the armed forces.

Standing among the assembled was William M. Verebely Jr., a Chesapeake resident who now is an architect but was assigned to an air commando unit in Vietnam.

Verebely, 54, served from 1963-64 and returned home to live pretty much a normal life, one that did not revolve too much around his status as a veteran. But as the years progressed, he met many people who had no idea about Vietnam, who seemed confused about why the nation got involved or what was gained from the experience. So he began speaking in local high schools and introducing students to ideas they may not hear in classrooms. ``There is a side that they only get from textbooks and there is another side that I was trying to give them,'' he said.

The war was difficult. He remembered seeing dead children, killed by the Viet Cong as reprisals to local villagers who were unwilling to support the Communists. In this way, he said, the Viet Cong ``enslaved people.'' The idea of it still makes him anxious.

His job was to fly air cover for Army Special Forces in Soc Trang, in the Mekong Delta. Challenging as it was, Verebely said he had no doubts about his decision to volunteer.

``I'd go back today, if I could go back for the same reasons that I went in the first place,'' he said.

Patrick J. Callahan, a 49-year-old manager for a Canadian manufacturing company, served in the 11th and 13th Marine Divisions in Vietnam from 1969-70. He won a Purple Heart, and a Cross of Gallantry during those difficult years. He stood before the Tidewater Veterans Memorial dressed in his camouflage Tuesday.

Callahan put it simply about why he attends the annual parade:

``If we don't support it, then who will? If the veterans do not show up, there may be no reason for many people to show up. And there are many men who can't be here, who are gone, and so I come here to be their spokesman.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

O.A. Dodson, left, and Steve Migitz, both of Virginia Beach, attend

Veterans Day ceremonies at the Tidewater Veterans Memorial on

Tuesday.

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