11.11.03 Memories of Vietnam

11.11.03 Memories of Vietnam

(EXCERPT) By ERIN McINTYRE The Daily Sentinel

Teo Van Ta never visited Fruita, Colorado. He never fought in the U.S.
military.

But Rita Hoelscher will never forget her father's fight for her
freedom when she was a young girl in Vietnam. And she doesn't want
anyone else to forget, either.

That's why she decided to honor her father and immortalize his service
in Vietnam by placing his name on a brick at the Western Slope Vietnam
War Memorial Park in Fruita.

When Hoelscher was 9 years old, her family lived in Chau Doc near the
Cambodian border. She was called Tam Ta, meaning "heart" in her native
language. Her father, a businessman, served as a first lieutenant in
the South Vietnamese army.

In 1956, three years before the first American soldier was killed in
Vietnam, Teo Van Ta was shot and killed by the beginnings of the Viet
Cong militia.

With her father's sudden death, a new responsibility and reality
shattered Hoelscher's childhood.

"I became both mom and dad when my dad died," she said.

Hoelscher stayed home from school to take care of her younger sister
and older brother, while her mother and older sister went to work as
tailors to support the family.

After her father was killed, her mother took them to the country and
they lived on her grandparents' farm. But they couldn't get awa...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com