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Rare Vietnam re-enactments coming to Elgin

For decades, history buffs have banded together, put on uniforms just like those worn by the Blue and Gray troops of 150 years ago, and re-enacted the battles of our Civil War.

Others have dressed as Yankee Doodles and British Redcoats to re-create the War for Independence. As have those posing as G.I. Joes or German Wehrmacht troops of the 1940s when Midway Village in Rockford holds its elaborate "World War II Days" every summer.

But the long, divisive war we fought in South Vietnam in the 1960s? That has not been the subject of any re-enactments in the Fox Valley. Until Saturday and Sunday, that is, when about 50 enthusiasts dressed up as Vietnam-era "grunts" will set up at Camp Big Timber near Elgin and invite visitors to watch them "Return to the A Shau Valley."

As well as showing visitors what camp life looked like, at noon and 3 p.m. each day the re-enactors will even square off in a mock battle against North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong soldiers.

Event spokesman Rick Pennington, who teaches social studies at Hampshire Middle School and lives in Marengo, said Vietnam re-enactments are rare, because while the American Revolution inspires us, the Civil War stirs us and World War II is seen as "the last good war," Vietnam remains a hot potato.

It caused angry division in America and resulted in 360,000 American casualties, including at least 57,000 dead.

Unlike today, when even most critics of our wars respect the sacrifices and ordeals endured by our troops, the GIs coming home from Vietnam often were seen as baby killers, sometimes even spat upon by a largely unappreciative American public.

"These guys didn't get their ticker tape parade," Pennington said. "It's taken a long time for this country to heal."

The 34-year-old Elgin native describes himself as "a history geek," fascinated by his grandfather's tales of serving as an Army medic during World War II.

Pennington said he was rejected for military service because of a physical condition. But as a young adult he met some World War II re-enactors and began collecting the uniforms, guns and gear needed to spend weekends as a 1940s soldier like his grandfather.

When he met others interested in doing the same thing for Vietnam, he and 11 other guys from the suburbs formed a new unit called the 2/327th Vietnam Re-Enactment Group.

"We had to decide what to call ourselves. We said, 'Of course we need to name it after Scott Adams' outfit,'" Pennington said. Adams, a Roscoe, Illinois, native they knew from the World War II re-creations, had served in Vietnam in the Second Battalion of the 327th Infantry Regiment, part of the legendary 101st Airborne Division.

The group has participated in shows in downstate Illinois, but this will be its first in the Chicago area. The event is called "Return to the A Shau" because the real 2/327th frequently moved in and out of the A Shau Valley of South Vietnam.

Rick Pennington and members of the 2/327th Vietnam Re-Enactment Group are holding a re-enactment in Elgin this weekend. DAVE GATHMAN, FOR THE Daily Herald

In addition to Pennington's group, about 40 other re-enactors will come from Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The re-enactors add to their Vietnam knowledge from Adams and from Vietnam vets who visit them at shows. For example, Adams told them the real 2/327th didn't wear ponchos because rain hitting them made a splattering noise that would betray their location to the enemy.

The soldiers, often draftees, were fighting a war in which the control of land counted for little. Most battles were quick ambushes, and the farmers they saw in the rice paddy by day could have been shooting at them with an AK-47 at night.

Americans usually were required to serve only one year "in country." But Pennington said that one year added up to more stress than that faced by most soldiers of previous American wars.

"One study found that the average World War II infantryman saw only about 15 days of actual combat a year while the average one in Vietnam saw 200 days of combat," Pennington said. "There were no front lines, so they seldom really felt safe."

The American forces and their South Vietnamese allies won virtually every battle. With overwhelming air power, helicopter mobility and superior firepower, they often inflicted 10 times as many casualties as they sustained. But that mattered little as people back home grew tired of sending their boys into what looked like a never-ending guerrilla quagmire that more and more Americans saw as an unjust conflict.

Pennington said honoring the Vietnam veterans is becoming more urgent now because some, just 20 or so years younger than their World War II and Korean War counterparts, are beginning to die of old age.

He said that while visiting Washington, D.C., one day, he ran into a group of aging Vietnam vets.

"I went up and shook one's hand and said, 'Welcome home,'" Pennington said, "And he said, 'I've been waiting for 50 years to hear that.'"

If you go

What: “Return to the A Shau” Vietnam War re-enactment

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Camp Big Timber, 37W955 Big Timber Road, between Elgin and Gilberts

Admission: $5; free for veterans and kids 5 and younger

More information: See

2/327th Re-Enactment Group Facebook page or email worldwar2rick@yahoo.com

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