SUBMITTED BY:

Julie Kink, Family Contacts Committee Member

FAMILY CONTACTS COMMITTEE
CONNECTS VETS, FAMILIES
" Please tell the Vets they have the power to pass on our fathers' hugs."

"I received a phone call from someone who knew my father. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, to talk to him, but it was also the most meaningful thing I've ever done." 

"I can remember being so proud of him. I was 13 and was the only one home that day when those two officers came to the house. I did not know or understand what happened to him over there, until now." 

"I have finally met my brother's Lt. who was with him the day he died. He was the only one out of three who survived the ambush. He had always wanted to find us to tell us he was sorry it wasn't him. He too did not know where to begin his search. My family has since met him in person, and the healing has been tremendous all around." 

The stories are as varied as the personalities involved, but each one refl ects the healing that can come from connections that are being made between those who served in Vietnam, those who lost their buddies, and the friends and family members waiting back at home whose fathers, sons, uncles or brothers never returned. 

Driving those connections, for helicopter casualties, is a small group of volunteers who comprise the Family Contacts Committee of the Vietnam Helicopter Flight Crew Network. The committee, formed in July 1997, has assisted with more than 260 cases so far -- sons and daughters seeking to understand the father they never knew, brothers and sisters eager for clues to their loved one's personality in Vietnam . . . and fellow veterans wishing to find the family members of their fallen brothers so they can finally say, "I never forgot him."

It's often the little things that families want to know: what his nickname was, what his job was in Vietnam, whether he worked every day or got any relaxation, what daily life was like, what he ate, talked about, laughed about, cried about.

Veterans often just want to tell the family of their lost friends, "He was a good soldier and a fine person, and I still think about him every year on that day."

The Family Contacts Committee is accessible via the internet at http://www.VirtualWall.org/contacts. There is an email link for those seeking assistance or wishing to inquire about a case.

Friends and family members of Vietnam helicopter unit casualties who contact the FCC committee chair, Gary Thewlis, are assigned to one of the Committee members. Their job is to provide guidance and assistance and to facilitate the actual contacts as needed. The Committee uses the history archives of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA), members of VHPA and the Vietnam Helicopter Crew Members Association (VHCMA) and other sources of information about the person and their unit. To protect the privacy of Association members, Committee members will make first queries themselves and take guidance from those contacted.

The FCC does not yet have a web-accessible list of all helicopter crew members they have been contacted about, but the FCC Chairman has the full list and can respond to queries. If there is someone you want to know about, please contact FCC Chairman Gary Thewlis, fccontac@mindspring.com, 1177 Solano Ave., Sonoma, CA 95476; 707-935-9241.

If the casualty you knew is not one the FCC has been contacted about, your input is still important. You may provide valuable information should the family or friends of that person ever approach the FCC for assistance. If your wish is to take the initiative and locate the family yourself, the FCC can help in that search as well.

To all who have assisted with FCC cases over the past three years, thank you for helping with the healing. Your willingness to share memories is appreciated more than you know. As one daughter put it, "Please tell the vets they have the power to pass on our fathers' hugs."

Julie Kink, FCC Member is the sister of WO1 David Kink C Trp 1/9th CAV KIA 8-3-69