Royal Hettling (left) displayed a marble  monument like the ones that will honor the Minneota six who died in Vietnam. This one is of Charlie Hettling’s friend Ronald Frizell. Charlie Hettling holds his Vietnam photo engraved in the marble. “We want the six memorials to be a surprise,” said Charlie Hettling. Staff Photo by Byron Higgin.

By Byron Higgin
Mascot Publisher

Minneota sent several native sons to fight in Vietnam.
Six of them never came home.
They were Richard Lozinski … Steven Gravrock … Lyle Leppke … Tom Bradley …. Don Culshaw and Dennis Anderson.
They were sons, grandsons, brothers and friends.
Certainly their families remember.
But does anyone else?
Vietnam was not a popular war and outside of a brief time in 2006 when a replica of the Vietnam Wall called, “The Wall that Heals,” came to Minneota, the six have gone unremembered.
“We often wondered why wasn’t something done to honor these people?” Royal Hettling asked.
Now, Minneota brothers Royal and Charlie Hettling, themselves products of the Vietnam war, are bringing the lives of the Minneota six back to the community.
A week ago Charlie Hettling returned from his ninth trip to Vietnam, lugging a special package, a marble monument with the bust of one of the the six specially engraved by Vietnamese craftsmen.
Riding with Charlie and Royal Hettling on this journey to restore dignity to those who gave their lives are the families who still remember. “They thank us for keeping the memories alive,” said Charlie Hettling.
“We don’t want these people to become faceless names,” said Royal Hettling.
“Every time I bring the marble monuments back it’s like carrying them back home,” he said.
Someday, they hope to see all six marbles displayed in a small shelter for everyone to see, to remember, to honor the Minneota six and those others who survived.

(More in The Mascot 11-04-09)