BLOOMINGTON 鈥� Chuck Jones was just 18 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1966 before being shipped out to Vietnam.
"I went from high school right into a war zone," he said. "All I knew was my school and playing baseball."
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A military brat, he spent his childhood going to whatever base his father was assigned to. It was on one of those bases where a Navy corpsman taught him how to take temperatures and blood pressure.
After an injury that forced him out of baseball, he decided being a medic is what he wanted to do.
"Little did I know about the Vietnam War and how much of a commodity the medics were, but I soon found out," Jones said.
He stayed in country for 11 months before being sent home after he was injured by shrapnel for the third time.
"I have scars in my arms but I was very fortunate," he said. "I have worse mental wounds than anything else."
Jones, a Purple Heart recipient, is taking part in a rolling 50-year commemoration of the Vietnam War. The war saw its first U.S. advisors in 1950, then a gradual buildup until combat forces were deployed to South Vietnam in 1965. The war officially ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon, leaving 58,220 U.S. military personnel and about half a million North Vietnamese aligned forces and an equal number of civilians dead in its wake.
and features objects from the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum at Camp Riley, near Brainerd. The event goes through Saturday.
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Gov. Tim Walz and a host of other speakers are expected to deliver remarks during the event.
"It's a period of history that a lot of people would rather forget but we can't forget, said Brad Lindsay, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs. "We had about 94,000 veterans in the state of Minnesota that served during that era and we want to make sure that their sacrifices aren't forgotten."
The event is part of a 13-year commemoration period established under President Barack Obama in 2012. That period will end on Nov. 11, 2025.
Almost 57 years after he returned home, Jones reflected on his time in Vietnam.
"I had no concept of war. One day I was eating steak in a steak house and two days later, I was over in a jungle getting shot at by people that I didn't know who they were or why we were even shooting at them," he said. "It's kinda like today, same things going on, only in different parts of the world."
When he got back to the States, Jones embarked on an impressive medical career, eventually landing a position with the Minnesota Vikings to do MRIs for the team. He's staffed two Super Bowls and four NCAA Championships.
Jones, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, wants younger generations to talk to veterans about their experiences.
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"The war is still inside," he said, pointing to his head and adding that to him, it was a "goofy" war. "I had no clue about it until I was there."
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