Sharing Our Stories

Richard J. Hiebsch
Conductor
King of Prussia, Pa.

Part of my military service was returned to me after 36 years. I received a call from a woman named Stacey Hansen asking if I had served in Vietnam, and wanting to confirm my name. I told her I made two tours of duty in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969 serving during the first Tet Offensive.

She said she had what she believed to be my military ID, or dog tags. She discovered hundreds of them on a trip to Vietnam in 2000, and vowed to bring as many home as possible. I remembered losing them, but not exactly when or where. She said she purchased them in Hue where they were sitting in a bowl at a vendor’s stand.

When I received them, it felt a little like Christmas. Here was a part of my life that I thought was gone forever.