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Friday, April 28, 2000
By Robert Dvorchak, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Terry Anderson calls it the most satisfying thing he's done, going back with fellow Vietnam veterans to where they were once at war but are now building schools for kids.
"They went over there in the first place to do something they thought was right. It all went bad. But they still want to do that good thing," said Anderson, a former Marine, journalist, author and hostage.
"It's a lot of guys trying to work out something that is so difficult. It's a way for lots of guys to regain their pride," he added.
Anderson was in town last night to accept a veteran of the year award on behalf of his longtime friend, Lewis B. Puller Jr., who was posthumously recognized for his courage and his efforts in founding the Vietnam Children's Fund.
A former Associated Press bureau chief in Beirut, Anderson spoke at the annual dinner of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program. The dinner raised about $60,000 for jobless and homeless veterans in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Eleven schools will have been built by the end of the year in Vietnam, and another five to seven will be built next year.
One of those schools was dedicated near Da Nang last Veterans Day through the efforts of Army veteran Anthony Accamando Jr. of Bethel Park. He is working with the Bethel Park Rotary to raise money for another school, and he is working with Mayor Murphy to establish a sister city relationship with Da Nang.
Puller, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Fortunate Son," worked with Anderson to establish a nonprofit organization to build a network of elementary schools.
The son of the late Gen. Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine in history, Puller lost both legs and suffered other devastating injuries during his tour of duty. He hit upon the idea for schools when he returned to the country where he lost so much.
"Lewis discovered that they didn't need a monument or a statue, but they really could use schools," said Anderson, author of the national best-seller "Den of Lions" about his seven years of captivity at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.
Now the visiting professor at Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism, Anderson said he never came to grips with Vietnam until he returned from Beirut. Like many vets, he remembers being spit on when he came home.
But he went to the black granite Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and experienced a catharsis.
"I have never seen a Vietnam veteran go to the wall who didn't cry," said Anderson, once a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. "For 25 years, nobody talked about the war. It was like a wound covered with scar tissue. It's only beginning to work its way out now."
Former Associated Press journalist Terry Anderson, right, greets members of the 171st Air Refueling Wing color guard yesterday before speaking at an awards dinner Downtown. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette) 
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