T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Retired Iowa Army National Guard Command Sgt. Major Steven Hyde was the guest speaker at the annual Iowa Veterans Home Veterans Day program. He stressed the importance of veterans sharing their stories.

If history is forgotten, it is doomed to be repeated, and veterans were encouraged to share their stories during Monday’s Veterans Day Program at the Iowa Veterans Home (IVH).

Retired Iowa Army National Guard Command Sgt. Major Steven Hyde, a volunteer at IVH and native of Cedar Falls, was the program’s guest speaker. He joined the United States Army in 1965 and served 18 months as a helicopter crew chief and door gunner in Vietnam. He was awarded with a Purple Heart and the Air Medal. Afterward, Hyde joined the Iowa Army National Guard in 1974 and began working as a helicopter technician. In October 2001, after Sept. 11, he was deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom as the first sergeant of Company D 109th Aviation. Then he was deployed in 2002 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Hyde told the crowd he loves Veterans Day as people get to recognize the veterans who are still alive.

“The reason that is important for me is because I think it’s important to remember our stories,” he said. “. . . We as veterans know the price of war. We as veterans know the cost. We need to tell those stories. We need to get them recorded, and I encourage every one of you, if you haven’t, if you can’t sit down and write it yourself, tell someone. Tell a family member. My dad was a World War II Navy veteran, spent three years on Guam during the world at a Japanese-infested island. I know he saw combat, but he never talked about it. My three brothers and I don’t have his story, and I wish we did.”

While Hyde stressed the importance of sharing veterans stories, he told some funny stories from his time in the service. He asked the veterans if they remembered their first haircut, and recalled he had beautiful hair in his teenage years and wished his wife had met him then.

“I walked out of there bald as a cue ball,” Hyde said.

He also introduced his wife Marian, who was a military police officer. Hyde remembered when she came home from training one day and he asked what she learned, if she could show him. Marian told Hyde to push her, which he protested against, but she insisted.

“I reached out to push, and in the blink of an eye, my hand was behind me with her thumbs on the back of my hand and she waltzed me all over the house in excruciating pain,” Hyde said. “I’m a pretty nice husband.”

The fun memories are easy to tell, he said, before sharing more serious ones. During the Vietnam War, Hyde served as a helicopter crew chief and door gunner. In the middle of a mission, they got a call to return to base camp and prepare for a combat assault.

“The infantry had made contact,” Hyde said. “We had to drop what we were doing, go back to base camp and load up guys and put them into that battle. Going into the LZ, the landing zone, it’s an experience I really don’t want to repeat, but I want to remember it, because if I don’t remember . . . Dick Chamberlain was the first KIA [killed in action] of my unit.”

On that mission, as Hyde was in the helicopter, he could hear on the radios what was happening, but the soldiers with him could not hear the talking. He knew what situation they were in, and aircraft were getting shot down as troops were being let out.

“I know what’s coming,” Hyde said. “All of a sudden, I’m cold. I’ve got that 100 mph wind, but I’m colder than that. I feel this young kid, I’m 19 at the time, this young kid yanking on my pant leg, yelling ‘What are we going to do?’ All I can say is ‘Somebody on the ground will tell you what to do.'”

Then he heard Chamberlain’s aircraft was shot down and knew someone was killed, but Hyde’s helicopter went into the LZ and hovered above the ground for the troops to jump out.

“The kid yanking on my pant leg hit the ground, running through the grass, looking around for help,” he said. “. . . A machine gun had taken him out. Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to have those memories? But with those memories, we remember the cost of war. With those memories, we can tell our families and our friends what it’s really like. Even if you didn’t get sent to a combat zone, you’re at the discretion of your commander. The job you did, the place you were put was because somebody needed you there. Your family and friends need to know that. If I push it back to the point I don’t remember, I don’t want any of my children or grandchildren to be forced into those kinds of memories. I encourage you to pass your story along, to tell somebody.”

Hyde said he would talk all day about his experience in the military, but knew the other veterans had stories, as well.

“Maybe you don’t have the skill set to sit down and write them, but I know you have the skill set to tell them,” he said. “I encourage you to tell your families, tell your friends, tell whoever will listen and remember.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.