Bio: Lucht, Dave (Honor Flight – Oct 2017)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Lucht, Lesar, Rueth

Source: Tribune/Record/Gleaner (Abbotsford, WI) 01 Nov 2017

(Written by Dean Lesar)

Dave Lucht uses the word “unbelievable” quite a bit in talking about the Never Forgotten Honor Flight he took on Oct. 9. From the national memorials he saw in Washington D.C., to the stories he heard from fellow veterans during the day, to the letters of support he received from local school children, and finally to the “welcome home” he witnessed upon his return, the word “unbelievable” is the one that best covers it.

Lucht and about a hundred other veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam made this flight, the final one of 2017 launched by the Wausau chapter of the Never Forgotten Honor Flight national network. Since its formation in 2009, the Wausau chapter has sent nearly 2,750 veterans — at no expense to them — to see the revered memorials in the nation's Capital that honor the women and men who have answered their country’s call in time of need.

Lucht answered that call just after he graduated in 1968 from Loyal High School. Facing a certain draft notice from the U.S. Army, Lucht voluntarily enlisted in the Navy, and within a year was aboard a 2,050-ton destroyer with 318 other men, headed for the coast of South Vietnam. In his year at sea, he would do everything from stand in the Honor Guard for burials at sea, to assist in bombarding unseen enemy targets on land. As his reward, he was spit upon when walking in uniform through a California airport.

Lucht said he knew already in his junior year of high school that the Vietnam War would probably be in his future. It was then he fi rst received a notice to report for a military physical in Minneapolis. So it was, in 1968.

“There really wasn’t anything you could do about it,” he said. “I didn’t really have any choice. The draft was there. The only choice I had was to go to Canada. That was the only way I could’ve gotten out of it, but I didn’t want to go to Canada. It was a bad deal. You learned to adjust.”

Lucht said he hadn’t heard much about the war, as media coverage was nowhere near as intense as it is these days. He remembers hearing of the death of Loyal’s John Rueth in Vietnam, but that didn’t really weigh on his mind as he headed off for the Navy.

“When you’re that age, you don’t think of that. You’re indestructible,” Lucht said. “When you’re 18, 19 years old, that is the furthest thing from your mind.”

Lucht arrived for boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill., in August 1968. After completing that in October, he received his orders to report to the naval base in San Diego. There he was assigned to the USS Hopewell, a World War II-era ship with hammocks for sleeping and nothing resembling an air conditioner.

By July 1969, the Hopewell was off the west coast of South Vietnam. As the war was escalating, Lucht and his shipmates were called upon to patrol the coast and throw supporting fi re inland when ground troops were in trouble.

“For four months, we cruised the South China Sea, fi ring many rounds inland and trying to silence Viet Cong mortar attacks,” Lucht said.

The Hopewell was “loaded with all kinds of gun power,” Lucht said, and could fi re 7-8 rounds of 8-inch shells every four minutes, at ranges of 5-6 miles. The targets were never seen.

“Where you were shooting, nobody really knew,” he said. “We just knew the ground troops needed help.” Lucht’s main role was in ship service, as a storekeeper, but he had many other jobs when needed.

“If I had to be a gunner, I was a gunner,” he said. “We did everything from painting decks to maintenance.

”Lucht said his ship took fi re at times, but was never hit.

“You just took cover and tried to figure out what you had to do to get away from it or contain it,” Lucht said of the times when rounds were sent their way.

Ships under fi re would make maneuvers, slowly zigging or zagging to present a more difficult target. Lucht said at times three or more ships would be aligned along a coast, with only one fi ring at a time as the others decoyed.

“It was a mind game. You could see ‘em playing cat and mouse,” he said.

After cruising back and forth between China, Japan, Hong Kong, Okinawa and Subic Bay, the Hopewell returned to San Diego and was decommissioned. Lucht then was assigned to the USS Samuel Gomper, a 20,455-ton behemoth that carried more than 1,050 sailors. It was “a fl oating repair ship,” Lucht said, and had such luxuries as mattresses and air conditioning.

As a destroyer tender, the Gomper’s mission was to aid destroyers that took enemy artillery hits.

“If a destroyer was hit, we’d go to it to see if we could keep it from going down or to make repairs,” Lucht said.

The Gomper was sent in January 1970 to Pearl Harbor and Subic Bay, then on to Japan. It made two trips to Da Nang in South Vietnam during a 9-month voyage, and was back to San Diego by November. Lucht finished his tour at a naval base, and fi nally returned to Loyal in February 1972.

Lucht said he did not know while on the two ships what was happening back home. The sailors were unaware of protests raging across the country, or of the politics at work in Washington. As he made his way through the San Diego airport to catch his ride home, he found out.

“I wore my full uniform and I did get spit on,” Lucht said. “I did not realize that was going on here as strong as it was.”

It was just one hippie-type who spit at Lucht, but it was enough to make him realize it was best to keep a low profile. When he was not required to be in uniform, he slipped into civilian clothes.

Even though some were protesting the war, Lucht said he doubts if the people back in the States really were aware of real events in Vietnam.

“The people back home really didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I think a lot of our stuff was screened. Our hierarchy didn’t really want the public to know a lot of it. Was the public ever informed as to the real reason we were there?”

Lucht’s younger brother, Chuck, also came of draft age while the war was on, but a new law that prohibited brothers from being in a war zone at the same time kept him in Germany.

After Lucht’s return home, he married his wife, Barb, and settled back in the Loyal area. He now owns C&J Auto in Loyal with his son, Vaughn, and is active in the Loyal American Legion Post 175 and other civic groups.

He applied for a seat on an Honor Flight several years ago, but had to wait as older veterans took their turns fi rst. His turn came up for the Oct. 9 flight, and he was on the plane that took off from Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee at 6:30 a.m. The day’s itinerary included stops at the Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln memorials; a bus tour of the Capitol/White House area; the World War II Memorial; FDR Memorial; Iwo Jima Memorial; Arlington National Cemetery; and the Air Force Memorial. There was a glitch in flight plans in Washington, and the plane did not touch back down in Mosinee until almost midnight.

When the veterans landed, there was a large crowd there waiting for them, to provide the proper “welcome home” they did not receive when their tours ended. That part of the trip is another one Lucht describes as “unbelievable.”

So, too were, the dozens of cards he received while on the flight from school children back in Loyal. Each Honor Flight includes a “mail call” for the veterans, to replicate the times in the field when they received letters from home. With about 75 letters written by students, Lucht said “My envelope was the heaviest” in the mail call.

Lucht said the children’s letters were filled with “so many interesting little things that young people come up with.”

“What was your scariest moment?” one asked. “Why did you go into the service?” said another. The most serious one read, “Did you fear going to war and never seeing your family again?”

While Lucht said that was not on his mind at the time, many of the veterans he met on the Honor Flight did face death on almost a daily basis. The troops on the ground faced futures that were uncertain, at best.

“I met some people on the flight who were Marines,” he said. “It was unbelievable, the stuff he (one Marine) saw. Hamburger Hill, he not only went up it once, but twice. My story is nothing compared to what the guys talked about. I think about that every day. I could complain about it, but I had pretty easy duty.”

Lucht is extremely thankful for the chance to take an Honor Flight. The program is funded entirely by donations to the Never Forgotten Honor Flight organization from businesses, civic groups, organizations and individuals. He is one of the board members of the Loyal Car & Motorcycle Show, which has made several donations (including $1,000 this year) to the cause.

Lucht said he encourages any organization that is looking for a cause to support to consider helping the Honor Flight effort, as it is — there’s that word again — an “unbelievable” chance for veterans to get a pat on the back some of them never received.

“It was a great honor to be highly honored for one day, that we as a Vietnam vet never got,” he said.