Memories carried forever: Former Amarillo Mayor Harpole reflects on his time in Vietnam

As part of its monthly lecture series, the Texas Panhandle War Memorial hosted former Amarillo mayor and Vietnam War Veteran Paul Harpole on Saturday to speak about his experiences as a helicopter crew chief on a medivac helicopter during the Vietnam War.

After joining the Army in 1968, Harpole served two tours of duty in Vietnam, receiving 19 U.S. Army Air Medals. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army awarded this medal for service performing air missions.

With a room full of veterans in attendance, many of which were Vietnam War Vets, Harpole spoke about his harrowing 19-month tour of duty with the 45th Medical Brigade on an air ambulance as an 18-year-old fresh into a warzone. Harpole said that his unit had evacuated more than 189,000 patients. He said many of the missions had helicopters carrying more passengers than designed for.

Over the course of his tour, Harpole said that his helicopter went down five times, three of which were from being shot down and two from mechanical fire. He showed pictures that he took in Vietnam, which showed scenes of camp, the surrounding region and damage taken from enemy fire during combat. Many of the pictures showed the close proximity and constant danger a member of his flight crew faced with bullet and shrapnel holes all around the areas which they frequented.

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Harpole said that during most of 1970, his unit covered the bottom 60 miles of Vietnam for areas of evacuation responsibility of U.S. and South Vietnamese troops with a wide range of wounds and injuries. He spoke at length about the horrible effects of white phosphorus incendiary grenades nicknamed “Willie Pete” on many of the wounded, burning away flesh and its impact on him.

During his speech, which went over an hour with those in attendance hanging on every word, Harpole commanded the full attention of his audience as he described many of the events that happened to him on the countless missions he had flown on. Toward the end of his speech, he spoke about escorting two young Vietnamese children that were amputees to an orphanage full of children all amputees.

“Don’t think your life cannot get worse,” Harpole said. “We are so lucky. You will never know how lucky you are. You cannot even quantify the good things that have happened to you today.”

He said that his last mission two weeks later was to pick up two wounded children, one which was 3 years old missing three limbs and another was his sister that was also missing two limbs.

“I will carry that memory about Vietnam forever,” Harpole said. “Don’t ever tell me your life is rough because I am not going to listen.”

Many years later, when he visited the Vietnam War Memorial Wall, Harpole said that the monument had a tremendous effect on him. Reflecting back on the experience of visiting the wall, Harpole said it tore him up so much that he had to write a letter to express his feelings about the great men who gave their lives in the Vietnam War and his interactions with many of the wounded soldiers he carried to medical care.

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Harpole ends the letter as follows:

“I hope their pain is gone now but I know it's not. You see their faces lying on our ship covered with their blood and the blood of those from days before. 50 years have passed, yet not a day passes that we see their reflection in the wall faces in the names on the wall. They have come together now someday, we will put their faces with their names, and they will rest.”

After the lecture, Harpole said that this was his first time lecturing at the War Memorial and was thankful for all who came to hear him speak. He also talked about the improved care for veterans.

Harpole said that he felt the treatment of veterans from the Veterans Affairs had shown quite an improvement from its beleaguered reputation from decades ago.

“Taking care of our veterans is aligning much better than they used to; the Veterans Hospital here is incredibly good. The support you get from all angles of care from this organization is outstanding, and they are adding more counselors to deal with veteran issues," Harpole said.

“The history is gone away every year that passes,” he added. “The people here are very supportive, especially the older vets. Having veterans come out to hear me talk about my experience means a lot to me.”

The lecture series is a free monthly event at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial Center, which is now open on Saturdays in addition to Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to https://www.texaspanhandlewarmemorial.com .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Former Amarillo Mayor Harpole reflects on his years in Vietnam