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Keith Stuessi on Vietnam 1968-1969

The Excelsior Rotary Club

Club Update: The Excelsior Rotary Christmas Party will be held tonight, Tuesday, December 5^th at Lord Fletchers starting at 5:30PM. At last count we had 39 club members and guests for our festive celebration. This is our highlight event of the year with, music, games and great food and we look forward to seeing you there!

STRIVE 2023-2024: Our STRIVE meeting on November 30 was on “Attitudes of Successful People” presented by Nick Ruehl. The next session on December 7^th will be with Tim Litfin presenting on “Attitudes: Diseases of Attitude and Attitude Control.” These are great sessions! Also, we need more mentors!

Resource West: On behalf of our club Tiffany presented a $1,000 check to Resource West’s Executive Director Tracie

Stanton on Friday, November 28^th for the Teen Gifts of the Toy Chest Program.

Our Program on November 21, 2023 was Keith Stuessi speaking on Vietnam 1968-1969 in his own words.

“I started this October 17, and was asked to continue Nov. 21, as there were many questions. This is a brief summary Steve wanted for the Dec. 5 noon program: After moving to MN late 1970 and for the first ten years here, I don’t recall meeting anyone who had served in the military in Viet Nam. So, I thought my experiences might be of interest to this group. I lost five friends during the Viet Nam era, and those losses still haunt me today.

After 15 months in the military in April 1968, I was the first guy out of 2800 “Standby Reservists” in Ft. Carson, Colorado levied out to Viet Nam. Who did I piss off? My assignment was to head up the “Finance and Special Operations Unit” of our Support Battalion, assigned to the 101st, comprised of 20 Vietnamese and 8 GIs. We paid over 2000 Vietnamese who worked for the US military in Bihn Dinh Provence, in which Qui Nhon was the capital.

What made my “tour” very bearable, and often very enjoyable, was the four people I met in my first 24 hours there in 1968. I still have this image of all of them in my head from 1968. Sarah, John and I were all 24 then, our Colonel about 45 and Tau was about 30. Forever young.

Sooo, why me first was STILL THE immediate question? The Colonel finally spilled the beans: The Vietnamese in my unit and many educated Vietnamese grew up under French rule Since WW II where French was their second language. Also half were Catholic and half Buddhists.

As it turned out, my French language and culture background was key to my getting this very privileged assignment: With Sarah, who also had a similar French background, we were able to teach English to over 150 Vietnamese in our compound and 2 smaller cities. These classes we taught for 9 months, and working with the Vietnamese, became our best memories of Viet Nam.

Tragedies that staggered us. I mentioned the loss of a Kansas fraternity brother, an Air Force pilot whose supply plane was shot down. Also, the Red Cross planes sent to retrieve the injured from remote fire bases. I was assigned to these flights as a French language interpreter. Many of the kids did not survive before we could get them back to our large hospital. Their little bodies could not survive the shrapnel as larger adult bodies could. Don’t ask me about cluster bombs. It’s the kids who will find them.

1.)The draft process was entirely unfair. It was supposed to be random, but it was not! White guys like me with college degrees were essentially “privileged,” and treated far better than most.

2.)The Jane Fonda and General Westmorland debacles. Hanoi Jane’s meeting with Ho Chi Minh while John McCain was in the “Hanoi Hilton” and the General’s phoney testimony to Congress disgraced them in the eyes of us GIs.

3.)My incredible privilege of free travel until I graduated from college. My free TWA passes allowed me to learn French in Paris and in French speaking Switzerland.

4.)My Dad Flying his TWA jet to Viet Nam. By 1968 my dad had 28 years of seniority and could fly any plane on any route he chose. He bid Cam Rahn Bay and flew three flights there. But I missed him all three times. But my Mom’s cookies still got to me or the Cam Rahn Bay dispatch office.

5.)Going Home. Early September 1969. Three days after arriving back in Kansas City, I was a full time Grad Student at KU in Lawrence. Us tanned GIs with short hair and button-down collar shirts stood out amongst the anti-war protestors with long hair and grunge clothes who berated us as “baby killers.”

6.)Epilogue, Redemption, and life goes full circle. By sheer happenstance, I met a Vietnamese man in Target Chan before Christmas 2021. He and his wife had been in the English classes Sarah and I taught over 50 years earlier and credits the English he learned that allowed them to escape from Vietnam and begin a new life in America. I got some satisfaction maybe something we did had a lasting positive impact on the Vietnamese.

Angelina Amerigo Miss Minnesota

Our Program on November 7, 2023 was the smart, talented and beautiful Angelina Amerigo our Miss Minnesota as she prepares for the Miss America Contest in on January 7, 2024. She was again accompanied by her “Momager” Melinda. As you will recall her connection with Rotary is that

Angelina is the Communications and Marketing Director of the Rotaract eClub for the Environment Focusing on Pollution Reduction of plastic bottles, straws and bags.

Angelina then talked about her run for Miss Minnesota and wat a great experience it was getting to know many of the other contestants and all the activities that surrounded the pageant. Melinda privately said that her daughter had virtually won most all of the pageants competitions and most importantly the talent with her dancing, the interview and evening dree competition as well as other contests and received the prized scholarship to help her continue in her college education. With being the Miss Minnesota title holder she is excited to continue using her platform to speak on reducing the pollution of plastic in our state and nation. She believes it’s time to clean up our oceans, rivers, lakes and protect our precious marine life as plastic pollution is not only affecting the state of the earth we live in but is affecting a large list of precious marine life!

The slogan of her advocacy is “One Bottle, One Straw and One Bag at a Time.” She pointed out that there are 5 Ocean Garbage Patches that are part of the Gyre which is a swirling vortex of ocean current that consists of plastics and floating waste products. Our Mississippi River contributes 40% of plastic pollution in the Golf of Mexico today. Angelina stresses that we can do something about this problem that is also affecting aquatic and marine life here and in the World. She says, “ The answer is to Educate, Inform and Act!” She says that we can educate ourselves to understand what the problem is and then to inform our communities through social and printed media. “And then we need to act by recycling one bottle, one straw and bag at a time!”

She then talked about her busy schedule of appearances as Miss Minnesota and preparation for the Miss America Pageant. She then did Q&A answering many questions from members. She thanked our club for their support and the generous donation and ended by saying, “It was Rotary that started me on this amazing journey” and to practice “One Bottle, One Straw and One Bag at a time” and urged club members to support her to become Miss Miss America in 2024!

Keith Stuessi on Vietnam

Our Speaker on Tuesday, October 17th was club member Keith Stuessi describing his tour of service in Vietnam. Keith noted, “I wanted to share

a few experiences from my "tour" in Viet Nam 1968 - 1969. As I said, for about ten years after we moved from Kansas City to Minneapolis late in 1970, I don't recall meeting anyone up here who had served in the military in Vietnam. Whereas it seemed every guy I knew around my age growing up in the KC area experienced the US military during the Vietnam era. So, I thought my experiences might be interesting to our Rotary group.”

“I started my talk mentioning I was the first guy levied from Ft. Carson to Vietnam out of 2800 troops at that fort. Why me first? Getting to that answer after I arrived at my destination, which was a finance and special operations unit attached to the 101st Airborne. In Qui Nhon, I went through a series of funny dialogs with four people I became close friends with during my 10 month "tour". These included my Colonel, our finance company commanding officer, Sarah, the head nurse for our battalion, John our head supply sergeant, and "Tau" our Vietnamese interpreter.”

“As it turned out, my French language background was key to my getting this very privileged assignment running a payroll unit paying over 2000 Vietnamese who worked for our military in our province. Because of this background I was able to communicate and more easily resolve payroll issues with Vietnamese throughout our "Bin Dihn" province. These Vietnamese in my unit, and many in the field were close to my age, 24 at that time, and grew up under French rule where French was their second language. And with Sarah, who also had a similar French language background, we were able to teach English to over 150 Vietnamese in our compound and in 2 little towns nearby.”

“These classes and working with the Vietnamese, who I grew to love, were the highlight of my "tour." “

“Though I wanted to emphasize the most fun and interesting aspects of my tour, I also believed I needed to explain some of the "casualties" of this war, including the loss of a Kansas fraternity brother, an Air Force pilot whose supply plane was shot down right before I planned to have lunch with him again, and the Red Cross planes sent to retrieve the injured, where I was assigned as an interpreter, that were loaded with severely injured Vietnamese adults and kids from remote US Army outposts. The tragedy was many of these kids did not survive before we could get them back to our large regional hospital. These events still haunt me today.”

Superintendent Dr. David Law - Updated on Minnetonka Schools

Our Speaker on Tuesday, October 3^rd was Superintendent Dr. David Law giving us an Update on Minnetonka Schools. This is the 2^nd year for our new superintendent and he is amazing! Since our club was highlighting our club’s service project with Fall de Tonka, Dr. Law started by saying that h

e took part in the Tour de Tonka (in the downpour!) and what a great Community Ed Program we have in Minnetonka due to Tim Litfin’s leadership and we are in the top 10 districts in the country with our MCE Program. Also we have a very supportive community and involved parent volunteers. David listed all the achievements at all levels in the district including the language immersion programs from 1^st- 12^th grades. MHS continues to be an academic leader in the state and country and is venturing into an Aviation Program starting this year and students will emerge with a pilot’s license at the end of their training even while in H.S.! With the shortage of pilots will allow students to earn between $150,000 to $700,000/year. High expectations abound at MHS in all fields especially science and math. Other amazing programs are the S.A.I.L Program for disabled students and the Advantage Program with real business development and mentoring. We are also #1 in the state in reading and math.

The district has a host of ambitious goals and is working also to protect the mental health of students and meet students at their individual level of skill development to protect their self-concept and also combat bullying at all levels. This is not to say that we don’t have challenges facing our district. Most critical is the inadequate state funding of the district and thus we are renewing our technology levy funding referendum this fall and also have four retiring board members to add to the mix in November’s election! We all came away with the assurance that we have an amazing school district with great leadership, talented staff and striving academic students at all levels of the district.

Ash Wirth - The Freedom Fund

Our Speaker on Tuesday, September 19^th was Ash Wirth the Advocacy Manager for the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Scott Zerby introduces her as a passionate advocate for justice and her words to our club definitely proved that to be true. Ash carefully laid the groundwork for the Freedom Fund by acknowledging that “there are multiple truths in life and no one truth is necessarily right. I ask you today to in honest discussion and to be curious and honest with each other

and share in the discussion.” Ash’s topic was our system of justice and some of the injustices within our system particularly relating to bail and those among us that are less fortunate than us both financially and socially. It is impossible to cover her intriguing 55 point presentation here as she gave our club a nine week course in due process and a step by step account arrest to multiple outcomes in our legal system.

Ms. Wirth started by stating that “a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.” A person taken into custody can be held up to 48 hours (i.e., holidays and weekends don’t count) to allow the booking process to gain information and make a formal charge. Often the detained person’s family and/or friends know nothing about where they are or what has happened to them. Once charges have been made comes the arraignment hearing and/or bail hearing. At this point there are three conditions of release: 1. Released on their own recognizance if not a security risk. 2. Conditional release requiring certain things be done. 3. Conditional release, bail or both. If bail is required you get one phone call to your attorney or relative to post bail but you have to know that number because all your personal items have been confiscated. Making bail is tough because it has to be paid in cash to the exact amount or you go to a bail bondsman. Bail bonding is a for-profit business that charges 10% of the court set bail that never gets returned to you even if you show up for your trial. Many people (or relatives) can’t afford to post bail and consequently they sit in jail and this often leads to poverty, loss of job, and all the pieces start to fall apart in their life. So much for being presumed innocent until proven guilty! If you have money you are treated like you are innocent but if you are poor you feel like you are being treated as guilty.

The Freedom Fund acts to advocate for those that can’t post bail and to advise them of their rights and assists them in getting released and then to show up for their trial. Sixty percent of their clients show up and are prepared for trial and the bail gets returned. Many reasons account for accused not showing up for trial and the advocates do all they can to get them there. The advocates from the Freedom Fund are realists and know the plight of the poor and indigent but they also have compassion and strive to help those in need. Ash Wirth caused us all to have some thoughtful introspection!

Art & Eats with Sarah Heyd Johnson

Our speaker on Tuesday, September 5^th was Sarah Heyd Johnson presenting on the 3^rd Annual Arts + Eats free community event held on August 16^th in the parking lot of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior. Sarah is the head of Youth Ministries and Community Outreach at Excelsior United Methodist

Church. She held a similar position for 3 years at Mount Calvary and is well connected with all the Excelsior Area churches. Sarah explained that "Arts + Eats is a community festival of food, art, and music! The entertainment this year was provided by Joe Davis and the Poetic Diaspora and Kidsdance DJ, with food from The Nashville Coop, Del Sur Empanadas and Roulette's Pizza. Together it was a wonderful place to be under the big tents and free to all participants." Sarah thanked the club for being one of the event sponsors and encouraged our cooperation and extended an invitation to attend again next year and to please join the planning committee for Arts & Eats 2024.

The event stems from inspiration by Marnita's Table who is a Minneapolis company that focuses on inclusion, bridging gaps across differences, and intentional social interaction bringing community members from all backgrounds together. Arts & Eats has grown each year with the 1^st year being about 100 participants and then 250 the 2^nd and this year drawing 350 children and adults! Free food, great music, a community art project for all ages painting upcycled CD's with creative designs, and the Excelsior Library giving away 240 books to participants! Sarah smiled and said, "It was a wonderful place to be all together and connecting with friends and other community members!"

As always, our Excelsior Rotarians had lots of great questions for Sarah. She explained that they promoted it (in both English and Spanish) thru the Sun Sailor, online, at various churches' community meals, ICA, and flyers posted around Excelsior. The demographics were all ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities and cultures, and each person received a name tag and it had a question on it to help break the ice in meeting others they did not know. In fact, at the greeting table many people didn't even know that it was free! Sponsorship besides the ones mentioned above were direct donations of $500, $750 and $1,000 and listed on tables and the event's banner. Much appreciation for these sponsorships that made Arts & Eats possible.