Vietnam veteran plans to return to Vietnam after 53 years
CASTLE HAYNE, NC (WWAY) —A local Vietnam veteran is gearing up to travel back to Vietnam, after serving there more than five decades ago.
73-year-old Rossie Nance said he made the decision late last year, to return to Vietnam as a healing experience. His last time in the country was during the war.
“About every night you dream about it, but you never remember what you’ve dreamed. It’s always on your mind,” said Rossie Nance, Vietnam Veteran
Rossie Nance was drafted into the Army in 1970, and sent to Vietnam when he was 20 years old.
He is from Columbus County, and said at the time he actually looked forward being drafted, viewing it as an opportunity to travel.
“I didn’t know what Vietnam meant, until I got there, and I found out it was not a nice place to be. It was not variety vacation land, and I soon found out that I wasn’t going to be somewhere repairing radios, I was in a jungle making sure they worked,” said Nance.
He spent more than six months in Vietnam and returned home to North Carolina after he was injured. He later went on to join the Army Reserves.
After more than a half century, Nance will return to Vietnam next Wednesday, where he will spend 15 days.
On his last day there, he plans to sit down for breakfast with a North Vietnamese soldier who fought in the war.
“He was twelve years old, today he’s sixty-four, –and he’s looking forward to meeting me. It’s a healing process, when I get to talk to him I have no hard feelings against them and likewise they have never had hard feelings against us. They accept us as an individual. I’ve got to accept them as an individual person,” said Nance.
Nance says he’s looking forward to the trip.
“It’s closure for 53 years of worrying, pain, suffering. Seeing my individual veterans, –with their sicknesses, I know that can’t go away, but it gives me the insight of — I can tell them be happy, let’s move on,” said Nance.
Friday will mark 50 years since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, the official end of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
Nance says he is thankful for the support of his wife Catherine and their two daughters on his plans to return to Vietnam.
