The Viet Nam Veterans of the Diablo Valley are rolling out the welcome mat on Super Bowl Sunday and asking community members to open their pocketbooks.

Tickets are still available for the group's annual crab feed fundraiser, which takes place Sunday at the Veteran's Memorial Building, 400 Front St., Danville. Doors open at 1 p.m.

A large projection television and multiple large-screen televisions will be set up at the hall for guests to watch the Super Bowl. The cost of $40 per person or $375 per 10-person table includes appetizers, beverages, and an Italian pasta and crab dinner with dessert.

Weekend trips, dinners and gift baskets will be raffled off at the event, which also will include a silent auction and an appearance by the Oakland Raiderettes.

"Our expansion (in the community) all depends upon the amount of revenue we generate at this one event," event coordinator John Reese said.

About 100 Vietnam veterans belong to the 15-year-old Viet Nam Veterans of the Diablo Valley. Unlike national organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, the grassroots group is open only to Vietnam combat veterans and relies exclusively on local donations, Reese said.

The crab feed is the group's largest event of the year. Proceeds help pay for some 10,000 American flags distributed at Danville's annual Fourth of July parade.

In 1999, the Viet Nam Veterans of the Diablo Valley began the first East Bay Stand Down at Camp Parks Reserve Forces Training Area in Dublin. The program provides food, clothing, job support and other services to hundreds of homeless veterans.

In November, 16 members of the Diablo veterans group traveled with the Blackhawk-based Wheelchair Foundation to Vietnam, where they helped distribute 560 wheelchairs to disabled Vietnamese children.

"Being there 35 or 40 years ago in war and going back to the same country on a goodwill trip ... it was so moving," said Reese, a Walnut Creek resident who served in the Navy from 1970 to 1974.

Current military personnel and members of the Blue Star Moms military support group will attend Sunday's event. The Raiderettes will sign calendars to be sent to servicemen serving overseas.

Seating is limited to 150 guests, and tickets must be purchased in advance. For more information, call John Reese at: 925-935-4859, e-mail him at JGReeseUSN@sbcglobal.net or visit www.VNVDV.com.

A couple of times a night, Bill Green gets up to prowl his Alamo home. He keeps the lights out because he wants to be able to check for movement in the backyard.

"You might call it paranoia,'' the former Army infantry officer say. "We call it being on patrol.''

Thirty-seven years ago, two weeks before the Tet Offensive, Green, landed in Vietnam. Twelve months and three Purple Hearts later he left.

"It does change your life unbelievably,'' says Green, now 57. "The thing about it is, you don't realize it. It is only as you grow older that you find little things that will trigger it.''

Green's good friend, Mike Martin, works in sales in Danville. Martin was a naval supply officer in Da Nang in 1969. Today, he's 56, successful, and loves to listen to the oldies on KFRC.

"But every once in a while a song will come up,'' he says, "and I have no idea why, but I start crying.''

Martin and Green are founding members of Viet Nam Veterans of Diablo Valley, (www.VNVDV.com) a group some 150 members strong, who often speak to high schools and colleges about the historical perspective of the Vietnam War. Once, after a talk at Los Positas College in Livermore, psychology Professor Cynthia Ross asked if they knew anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder who could speak to her class.

"Mike just looked at me with this grin,'' says Green, "and he said, 'Yeah, we might know some people.' ''

PTSD is not a new phenomenon, but at a public gathering Thursday in Livermore, the Vietnam generation will offer a warning: PTSD will infect the troops in Iraq, who will need more than a little time on the beach when they get home if they are to get over it.

"Anybody that goes to war is going to be affected in some shape or form, '' Martin says. "We tucked those feelings in our footlockers and 20 years later they came out.''

To be perfectly honest, not everyone was sure that talking publicly about Vietnam was a great idea. It was hard enough to discuss the flashbacks and demons with their families.

Martin made it to the stage at his first public meeting, but couldn't bring himself to speak. And even after they begin, many vets may not finish.

"When some of us get up in front of people to give these talks,'' Martin says, "some of us will literally break. Something flashes in our head and the voice starts to quiver and eyes will well up.''

Green, a retired electrician who was such a tough guy on the job his nickname was "Grumpy,'' admits rarely making it all the way through without a quaver. But the audience is transfixed.

The vets talk about who they were when they left for Vietnam, what they did when they were there, and how they were changed when they returned.

Green, who was "in country'' in the northern mountains, lived on the ragged edge of anxiety for 12 months. There were times, he says, when he went 30 days without a firefight. And there were times when they came every day.

In some ways, Green never left Vietnam. When he walks in a park he finds himself checking for places a sniper might be hiding. He doesn't like crowds. When he goes to a restaurant, he makes a point of sitting with his back to the wall. He doesn't want anyone coming up behind him.

Martin, on the other hand, tells students that he never fired his rifle and never unholstered his pistol while he was in Da Nang.

"But every night I was in Vietnam I was either rocketed or mortared,'' he says. "I saw things I wish I'd never seen. I was 22 when I went, 23 when I came back, and it has changed every day of my life.''

Right now the vets are waiting and watching. Both Green and Martin say that when the Sept. 11 terror attacks took place, some in their group "began to lose it a little.'' They understand the stress of battle. And they know troops are coming back from Iraq with loads of baggage.

"Every time a car drives by them for the rest of their life they have to be thinking it is going to blow up,'' Green says.

They empathize, and would like to help, but continue to struggle with their own pain.

But at least today's troops will have a chance to make the transition. After pretending for years that PTSD was not a problem, the military has recognized the need to provide more support.

Green left Vietnam in jungle fatigues, landed in Seattle at 5:30 in the morning, was headed to San Francisco by 11, and was ordering a drink at San Francisco International Airport by 2 p.m. -- only to be hassled by the bartender.

Members of Viet Nam Veterans of Diablo Valley will discuss their experiences in the war and with post-traumatic stress disorder at 7 p.m. Thursday in the student center at Los Positas College, 3033 Collier Canyon Road in Livermore. The program is FREE, but there is a $2 parking fee.

A Place for Solace, Reflection on Combat Experience

War Memorial for Danville site

By Patricia Jacobus
Chronicle Staff Writer

Some days, Vietnam veteran Norm Mahalich retreats from his hectic schedule and spends a moment aching for his 53 friends who died in battle.

When the emotions well up, the real estate broker from Diablo tries to find somewhere to reflect on his seven years of combat. Usually, that quiet place is in his car or on a street bench.

"Sometimes you feel a need to be with your friends," said Mahalich, 56. "But not everybody can just jump on a plane and go to the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) wall in (Washington) D.C." Commemorative Statue

That is why Mahalich, a former U.S. Marine pilot, helped start a campaign in 1991 to build an All Wars Memorial at Oak Hill Park in Danville.

The memorial, designed by Scott Smith of TERRA Design & Construction, will be at the top of a hill in the park, on land donated by the town of Danville.

It will include a spiraling 200-yard path of granite blocks which will be engraved with the names of dead soldiers. The eight-inch-square blocks will be sold for $100. Units or organizations may purchase larger blocks for $250.

Alongside the path, "liberty" panels that have not yet been designed will depict such things as grieving families or battlefield scenes, said Ron Azarcon, an insurance agent and Vietnam veteran.

At the top of the hill, five benches will overlook the sweeping vista of Mount Diablo.

"This will be called the place for reflection and healing," Azarcon said, "where people can come and think about their loved ones."

Leading up to the reflection area will be a bronze statue, slightly larger than life-size, of a soldier helping a wounded comrade up the hill, Azarcon said.

"It doesn't reflect any particular war; it's for everybody," he said.

The rest of Oak Hill Park now has duck ponds, volleyball courts, and barbecue pits.

The All Wars Memorial is expected to cost $500,000. So far, through golf tournaments and popcorn and granite block sales, the Vietnam Veterans of Diablo Valley has raised $100,000.

An anonymous donor promised to give $250,000 if the group can raise the other half by December 31.

If all the money is collected, Mahalich and the others hope to have the memorial built by next summer.

"There isn't anything in the Tri-Valley that speaks to not only the soldiers who had to bear the brunt of the war, but also to the wives, children, mothers and fathers who were left behind and had to suffer," said Danville Councilman Michael Shimansky.

Shimansky recommended a memorial park when Mahalich said he wanted to take on a project after organizing a club for Vietnam veterans in 1991.

Mahalich, who has visited the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., was touched when he saw a photo of the moving version of the wall published in The Chronicle in 1984.

At the bottom of the photograph was the name Richard E. Heister and a note with the words "Dad, I miss you."

Heister had been a fellow Marine pilot with Mahalich and had died in action.

It took seven years after he saw the photo, but Mahalich finally tracked down Lance Heister through a persistent check of phone numbers, finally reaching a sister.

When Mahalich contacted Heister in Albuquerque, N.M., he was hungry for information about his father. Ron Jennings, a pilot friend of Mahalich's, flew Heister to the Bay Area and Mahalich met with him in Danville.

"We were drinking beers and smoking cheap cigars and we were on my porch yelling at each other, then I said, 'Hey you want to know what your dad was like?' and I told him to go look in the mirror."

Because his oldest brother had died earlier in the Vietnam War, Richard E. Heister - the sole surviving son - did not have to go to war when he was drafted in 1962.

But he couldn't stand to watch his two best friends, Mahalich and Jennings, march off without him.

Two months later, he was killed.

"Ron and I were at the Officer's Club drinking beers when one of the guys came running in saying Heister went down," Mahalich recalled, his voice strained. "I ran as fast as I could to the colonel's tent and heard the news. I didn't cry. I didn't cry for 30 years."

Mahalich went on to serve seven years in Vietnam. He later worked for a time as a Trans World Airline pilot.

He has kept in touch with Jennings, a Federal Express pilot in Los Angeles.

Over the years, the two old friends have supported each other through painful emotions they had both tried to "stuff away," he said.

But there are times when Mahalich would like to be alone and quietly remember. He knows other veterans, family members and friends of dead soldiers would also like somewhere to go and reflect.

Somewhere like the proposed All Wars Memorial at Oak Hill Park.

"It's not only a place to go up and cry and feel bad," he said. "It's also a place to go to feel good about what we have and what these guys fought for."

Vets on Mission of Peace to Vietnam

Veterans hold primary fundraising event Sunday

DANVILLE: Group that hosted East Bay Stand Down relies on revenue from crab feed

By Jeanine Benca

CONTRA COSTA TIMES 1/30/2007

A Place for Solace, Reflection on Combat Experience

War Memorial for Danville site