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Happy Father's Day!
May God Bless You With More than the Words that I Cannot Even Begin Convey!
Dads Are Forever~Dads Wherever You Are, Today is Your Day!
San Francisco-by way of Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City- Father's Day, Year of Our Lord 2015 AD- As I write this from San Francisco, the place of port, Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., the father of Jackie, Joe, Stanley and Phyllis, would have first set foot in 1964, after successfully completing 350 aerial missions in Vietnam, his youngest Phyllis is still in Vietnam with her California State University Global Innovators MBA Class.
There is much to say about Fathers and Father's Day! But in the spirit of the old Negro Song, "I Cannot Tell It All," I'm not going to try. The search for our father, Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. has been for most of our lives an unspoken one. After the many years of not looking at the longing of our hearts, then finding a glimpse of an image via the internet from a mention of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. on a NASA chip to the 114th Aviation Company website, my sister Phyllis Wright Cameron and I found ourselves a week before Father's Day in the land where our father walked, laughed, worked and took his last breath in service to the United States of America.
For all of our childhood and most of our adult lives, we did not know that there was land in Vietnam that bore our father's name for many years of the Vietnam War,the "Shannon Wright Compound." It was named  after the first two casualties of the 114th Aviation Company-Lt. Kenneth Arthur Shannon who died March 15, 1964 and Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. who died March 9, 1964 along with 560th Military Police volunteer PFC John Francis Shea of Willimantic, Connecticut, who would have turned 21 years old a few days later in March. The banner leading into U.S. Army camp at Vinh Long, southwest of then Saigon, was named after an officer and NCO (non commissioned officer) during the time they were called "advisers" coined by President John F. Kennedy who had sent them to Vietnam, but who was ultimately assassinated three months before their untimely deaths.
There is much to say about the valor of the soldiers of the 114th Aviation Company, the first to arrive in Vietnam and the last to leave. As I cannot tell it all. For historians, Steve Stibbens caught some of its history in "Knights of Over the Delta."
WE CAME, WE SAW, WE ACCOMPLISHED-our goals of walking the land where our father last lived, seeing the Vinh Long Army base where he and his fellow soldiers worked, seeing the gate that bore the banner with our father's name and finding the studio where Dad had his eleventh anniversary gifts for "Ouida, the love of his life," the Anh Xuan Studio, and having a short ceremony in honor of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., PFC John Francis Shea, Lt. Kenneth Arthur Shannon, Commander George Young, the 58,000 fallen U.S. soldiers, men & women, the soldiers of the 114th Aviation Company, and the people of Vietnam who suffered greatly as a result of the Vietnam War. After 51, years, you can't expect to see much we were warned, but we saw more than our hearts could imagine. Here's a glimpse into the Vietnam we saw:
Finding the Shannon Wright Gate
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| Sisters Jackie Wright of San Francisco and Phyllis Cameron of Antioch stand at the Vinh Long Gate where the entrance of Shannon Wright Compound of the U.S. Army 114th Aviation Company stood during the Vietnam War. Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. pictured in Jackie's hand is shown with the Purple Heart he received during the war. Posthumously Sp5 Wright received the Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaves commended for completing 350 missions. |
Finding the daughter of the Vietnamese Artist who made the anniversary gifts for Wyley to send to Ouida for their January 17, 1964 11th wedding anniversary, shortly before his death, March 9, 1964.
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Quang Thi Anh Dao, retired photographer, daughter of Quang Van Phat, Phyllis, Mrs. Quang, widow of Quang Van Phat andJackie stand in front of family altar in honor of Mr. Quang, who hand painted the photographs of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida F. Wright for their 11th wedding anniversary.
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Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., shortly before his death March 9, 1964 commissioned Quang Van Phat at the Anh Xuan Studio to reproduce a wallet sized photo he carried of Ouida Fay Wright to an 8.5x11 portrait and one of himself for their 11th Anniversary. Mrs. Wright died March 9, 1970. The Quangs were informed that copies of the artwork is in each of the four siblings homes and are highly treasured.
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Safe travels to my sister, who was six months old when our father died, and was just two weeks away from a new life at Fort Hamilton, New York. Never holding his youngest, He died as honor guard for then Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Phyllis, there you are in Vietnam on Father's Day, to continue your journey with cohorts and instructors of the University of California East Bay Global Innovators MBA Program. What a great "life moves on" testament!
As I said there is so much to be said "I cannot tell it all."...All I can truly say is "Thank You, Father God" for this incredible gift of a lifetime. There was so much given that I could not even have thought to ask for, like, Mr. Hung, a very well-versed and talented tour guide who survived the Vietnam War living near DaNang with his protective father, mother and eight siblings. ...Can you imagine being greeted in Vietnam with songs by Louie Armstrong- seranaded by Mr. Hung imitating Louie Armstrong, "What a Wonderful World!" So I think to myself and I say to you, "what a wonderful world! Oh, Yeaaah!"
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| What A Wonderful World-Louie Armstrong |
HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO FATHERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD!
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