stay tuned for updates, we’ll be re-scheduling the training for spring.

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@gi2vet is joe’s warriors journey home twitter account, and you can also search #relay for life. updates will feed directly to the front page www.warriorsjourneyhome.org

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MAY

14th and 15th

Warriors Journey Home Relay for Life
led by Joe Caley, members of Warriors Journey Home will be participating in the Tallmade Relay for Life at the Tallmadge Middle School track. click the link below to join the team, or donate. We will be walking for Judy Lacey, and to raise awareness for Agent Orange related cancers.
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=31663&team_id=907660

Also on the 14th

Cassie Schumacher’s Wheels 4 Change Film Festival
Akron Public Library (main branch) starting at 7:00 p.m. Our display is presented by Tom Jones, and will feature a 20 minute video about the ministry and our trip to Viet Nam.

May 19th
Reverend John Schluep is the speaker at the Men’s Western Crescent Spring Dinner in Baltic, Ohio. You are invited to attend. If you would like to attend please contact John jschluepfcc@sbcglobal.net by Sunday, May 12th. Reservations must be made by May 13 and the cost is $12.00 for the dinner. Doors open at 5:30 and dinner is at 6:30.

Memorial Day, May 30th
Warriors Journey Home will be walking in the Memorial Day parade.
Contact Dave Meyer or Hank S. if you’d like to join us.

Also, it is the Tallmadge 5K that day.
We will be represented by many members of Warriors Journey Home.

Joe Caley and Reverend Schluep will be in Barberton where Joe is the keynote speaker at their Memorial Day service.

Curt Carlton will be at the Cuyahoga Falls Memorial Day event.

JUNE

28th
WJH member Mike Livingston is putting together an R&R for June 28th at the Aero’s Game at Canal Park, Akron. This is an evening game and it is intended to honor our veterans. Mark your calendar, and contact Mike for Details.

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By Kim Hone-McMahan
Beacon Journal staff writer

The boy in the timeworn picture is holding an American rifle. Each day at dawn, he and others from a nearby village rushed to spend time with the guys in Mike Company, 3rd Battalion. Sometimes the child with skin the color of caramel would clean Marine Charlie Forsyth’s gun.

The two became buddies — more like brothers, Forsyth would later explain.

When Charlie Forsyth, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from North Olmsted arrived at Firebase Birmingham he was followed by and soon befriended the group of local children. (Photos By Laura Fong Torchia/Akron Beacon Journal)

Sometimes he would give the boy he’d nicknamed ”Freddie” C-rations, also known as C-rats because soldiers were convinced that they tasted as bad as canned rodents.

”In the daytime, we would run a patrol and Freddie wanted to come with us. We would tell him he wasn’t allowed and he would be pouting when we left,” Forsyth remembered, chuckling.

But when the order came for the soldier to leave the country, Forsyth didn’t have time to say his goodbyes. No time to muss the boy’s hair. Not even a moment to tell his pint-size friend what joy he had brought him on days filled with war.

The last time Forsyth saw his pal, hanging around a foxhole near Hill 55 in Vietnam, was four decades ago.

”All these years, I’ve carried him with me and wondered what happened to him,” he said, tapping the spot over his heart. [click to continue…]

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By Kim Hone-McMahan
Beacon Journal staff writer

There are countless ways to kill a person.

”Some methods are sudden, like bullets and bombs, and some are slow like substance abuse, or a chronic illness, or a psychological condition that leaves a person in isolation,” writes the Rev. John Schluep in his book, Soul’s Cry.

Streetsboro's Ralph Knerem is seated in ceremony while Shianne Eagleheart (L to R) Charlie Forsyth, and members of Warriors Journey Home, Vietnamese journalist Pham Ut Quyen (R) and other Warriors Journey Home members bow their heads in prayer in Da Nang. (Laura Fong Torchia/Special to the Akron Beacon Journal)

Using the information he gathered about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on soldiers and seeking guidance about native healing from Shianne Eagleheart (Haudenosaunne-Seneca), founder of the Red Bird Center in Cambridge, Schluep has watched people heal.

Many veterans who returned from Vietnam 40 years ago were ridiculed. The lack of validation for their service to the country forced some to keep the atrocities they witnessed bottled up inside.

”One slow way to kill a person is to alienate them from the society to which he belongs. Separation and alienation bring about the death of the soul, a living dead,” said Schluep, founder of Warriors Journey Home in Tallmadge.

Tom Saal, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, knows what it is like to live without a soul. He lost his 42 years ago after ordering snipers to shoot a North Vietnamese soldier.

After the deed was done, the men brought the body to Saal. He rooted through the man’s possessions, retrieving photos of a woman and children.

The revelation that the person he had ordered killed was a husband and father was agonizing. Exhausted, he found a place on the ground to rest.

When he awoke, Saal discovered that his men had stripped the corpse of its clothing and crucified him on a bamboo cross.

”That’s when my soul left,” he remembered. [click to continue…]

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By Kim Hone-McMahan
Beacon Journal staff writer

It had been 40 years since the five combat veterans left Vietnam, a country halfway around the globe where men aggressively defended their soil and women sheathed children in their arms to hide them from soldiers.

But unlike the last time when they set foot in a war-torn land, this was a mission of peace, forgiveness and healing. Their first taste of redemption came early in the trip.

Former Viet Cong soldier Tam Tien, of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, and Former American GI Joe Caley, of Tallmadge Ohio, stand arm-in-arm at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tien was one of four Vietnamese delegates selected to speak at Case Western University's International Summit on Peace and War in October, 2010. (Laura Fong Torchia/Special to the Akron Beacon Journal)

The realization that they would be guests for a few days of a former Viet Cong fighter was understandably unnerving. They believed homeowner Tam Tien might be angry with them. After all, the last time they were in his country, Tien was the enemy.

During the war, Tien wanted to remain near his family in the Mekong Delta. As a result, he and his wife fought for the North, pitting themselves against friends who represented the South.

During one particularly difficult mission, Tien shared with the visiting Americans, he was severely injured and left for dead. With his intestines spilling from the wound, he crawled to a villager’s home, where he was cared for until the Viet Cong came for him.

Still, despite the fact that their country was ravaged by war, Vietnamese today welcome their former enemies with open arms.

”From the bottom of my heart, spirit and soul, I am sorry for what I did to your people,” veteran Ralph Knerem told Tien, through interpreter Tranh Song.

”Would you forgive me?”

Not knowing what exactly to expect, Knerem, who was a U.S. Army infantry soldier, waited for the man’s reply. To his surprise, Tien responded by asking for the American’s forgiveness. As they embraced in Tien’s home, tears streamed down their cheeks.

”It was like we were old platoon buddies,” added Joe Caley, who served as a 1st Air Cavalry scout dog handler for the U.S. Army. ”Although we fought on different sides, what we did was the same. Our fear was the same. Our hopes were the same. Our worries were the same.” [click to continue…]

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Click here to read the four-day series on our journey to Viet Nam

-complete with a video for each vet, bios of each of the Viet Nam veterans from our group, photo galleries, and even one gallery of Laura’s favorite images.

So proud of you warriors, and all veterans-thank you.

peace, Laura

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Haudenosaunee-Seneca Holy Woman, Shianne Eagleheart, burns sage to cleanse and protect the space where the healing circle meets. Photo by Laura Fong Torchia - Special to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Sacred bundles created to help with their healing on trip back to Vietnam

Published on Monday, Feb 21, 2011

Shianne Eagleheart of the Red Bird Center coordinated the veterans’ healing ceremonies in Vietnam. She describes them this way:

”Our veterans’ return journey to Vietnam, a country considered by many as the place of the dead, was a demonstration of their courage and heart’s desire for healing.

”To get a glimpse into the healing ceremonies conducted in Vietnam begins with the sacred bundle. In our Native American tradition, bundles are created for sacred purpose. A warrior’s healing bundle was created months before the Vietnam journey began. The ancestral teachings that support the bundle’s creation have been passed down for many generations within our Native communities.

”The one who carries the bundle must care for it every day and receive guidance that will support the healing of those in need. I accepted this responsibility and then brought the bundle to the Warriors Journey Home circle to receive the ‘gifts of support’ from the community. This support came in the forms of prayers, medicine, military patches of honor and other beautiful expressions of love and comfort. The bundle also carried the dog tags of the fallen warriors we journey for.

”Very important attention was given to each veteran’s heart and his vision for healing as we journeyed to their areas of operation.

”This is how the ceremony for each of our veterans emerged. In the ceremony we call on ‘the Powers’ to help and heal as we open the bundle. Another way to say this is calling on the Holy Spirit as the Creator blesses. The Powers come and move through the heart and soul. The Holy Spirit knows just what to do. We trust this and place what is so sacred in the hands of the Creator.

”We were all honored to witness the miracle of healing of each of our veterans as we celebrated with them new life and infinite possibility for the future. Each healing blesses not only the veteran, but also their family and their community. By supporting the healing of our veterans, we contribute to the healing of our nation.”

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Warriors Journey Home Presentation FC_Music from Laura Torchia on Vimeo.

An introduction to Warriors Journey Home, how it works, and why it works as an effective healing model for veterans and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

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