{"id":56630,"date":"2014-11-23T11:53:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T16:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=56630"},"modified":"2014-11-23T11:53:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T16:53:47","slug":"remembering-colonel-chuck-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=56630","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Colonel Chuck Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
I once saw an Army Colonel in full class A uniform hug a man in battered fatigues and a boonie hat. Both had tears streaming down their faces. They had not met prior to that moment in time and probably never saw one another again. That date was November 11, 1984. My best friend Patrick and I were at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue. We were the guest of the Army Colonel. His name was Charles “Chuck” Hall.<\/div>\n
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Those few days we spent with Colonel Hall impacted my life in ways I could not have imagined. I am sure others have a different view of him, but to me he will forever remain a kind and unassuming man who took the time to show two teenaged boys around Washington, and who shared part of his story with them. I am sure he had better things to do that weekend. Patrick’s father and Colonel hall were friends. Pat and I took a road trip to Washington where we were the guests of Colonel Hall.<\/div>\n
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Neither one of us expected to have seats in the VIP section when President Reagan gave his speech. Colonel Hall arranged that. We didn’t expect anything from him. He took the time to play host and later teacher to us. He shared part of himself with two teenaged boys who were fascinated with the act of war but had no real understanding of its cost and the toll it takes on those who survive.<\/div>\n
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That night at his apartment he showed us pictures from Vietnam. We saw a young man with his buddies. He named the names and used military terms we pretended to understand. He said things like ‘A team’ and ‘Montonyard.’ He took the time to explain what those words meant. I saw a flechette for the first time. I saw Montonyard bracelets that had been given to him as gifts. I saw him pause more than once to compose himself as we looked at photos. There were some he would not let us see. I saw photos of mass graves, the result of an attack on his base camp. I saw the real cost of war.<\/div>\n
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I saw and learned things that weekend that I did not fully understand for years afterwards. I did not understand the significance of that hug between strangers who were also brothers. I did not understand how hard it must have been for him to share those parts of himself with two young men who were obsessed with the glory of war. I know now why he chose to share himself. The lesson was learned.<\/div>\n
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I was looking up some information on the internet last night and found out that Colonel Hall had recently passed away<\/a>. He served 27 years in the military and an additional 23 years as a government contractor. He did three tours in Vietnam and was a Purple Heart Recipient. He had a large family that he was dedicated to. It is my hope that his family will at some point read this and know that he had a profound impact on the lives of at least two teenaged boys who were better men for having known him.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once saw an Army Colonel in full class A uniform hug a man in battered … Remembering Colonel Chuck Hall<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":644,"featured_media":56632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}