Story and photo by Amy Newcomb
GUIDON staff
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The names of 39 chemical Soldiers who died in Vietnam were enshrined on a plaque and placed on the walls of the Chemical Corps Regimental Room at the John B. Mahaffey Museum Complex by Col. Phil Visser, U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School commandant, and Dr. John Thiel, a veteran Chemical Corps Soldier, July 25.

Kip Lindberg, U. S. Army Chemical Corps Museum director, told those in attendance that although the Chemical Corps has had many mission changes and advancements in technology in the past 94 years, the Vietnam War was an unprecedented period of time for the Chemical Corps because of the scope of the mission.

“Not only were we tasked with previous missions of protecting our force from Chemical, Biological, Radiological warfare but we were given additional tasks … and those seven years were a key part of our 94 year history,” Lindberg said. “Unfortunately for us, a lot of the information about what our Soldiers did in Vietnam and the cost of that duty either was not collected at the time or it was lost during the period of (the Chemical Corps) threatened disestablishment.”

Lindberg said the U. S. Army Chemical Corps Museum was lucky to have worked with Thiel who served with two Chemical Corps units during Vietnam, and began the research that added three additional names to the plaque in late 2010.

“My last duty day in Vietnam I was wounded and a friend was killed,” Thiel wrote in his preface for the informational booklet that is on display at the museum. “For over forty years, I had thought the incident was on May 2, 1969 … when I finally found the records on my friend, they said he was killed on the 26th of April. I was stunned. That was impossible. Something was wrong.”

Lindberg said, the booklet is a compilation of biographical materials on the 39 deceased Soldiers, which is titled “We Remember Them as if it was Yesterday.”

Thiel’s investigation into the issue of the date discrepancy led him to locate and contact other members of the units he served with as well as family and friends of those who had served and died during Vietnam from different Chemical Corps units, which led him to document the fatalities for the families and the Chemical Corps.

“What we found out from our research was that there should have been three additional names that should have been on the plaque,” Lindberg said. “Somewhere along the way the records were misplaced or mistaken, so we had three of our Soldiers that Dr. Thiel was able to identify.”

Thiel enlisted in the Army in 1967 as a Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Warfare Specialist. He served two tours in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division. He was wounded during both tours earning a Bronze Star, three Purple Heart medals, Vietnam Service Medal with silver star and numerous others. In 1971, he entered college and earned a Bachelor of Science, Master of Business Administration and Doctorate of Business Administration. He has taught at Indiana University, the University of Tennessee, Butler University and Indiana University. He also had a private consulting practice which he retired from in 1990.