Jim Ryon, right, listens as Jack Seebacher recalls his time in Vietnam.JASPER, Tenn. – Jim Ryon clutches the gold-and-red medal in both hands and holds it against his chest, eyes closed. He waited 45 years to feel its metal barbs within his grasp.
Since a U.S. Navy admiral handed him the medal three weeks ago, he’s gripped it tightly, sometimes seated on a footstool surrounded by lonely darkness inside his Jasper home.
There he recites prayers of forgiveness to those he helped kill decades ago on a beach south of Da Nang, Vietnam.
Ryon, 64, spent more than 30 years stifling memories of the war. Bursts of anger, battles with alcohol and an early retirement forced him to confront what happened.
Then a few years ago the Navy veteran began seeking a talisman to help resolve his confusing role in a convoluted war – the medal others had received, but not him and his shipmates.