Remembering things best forgotten

By Doug Page | Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 01:48 PM

Being a warrior is not easy. Steve Leapley always wanted to be one. He volunteer for the Army.

When he was sent to Germany, he asked his commander for a transfer to a war zone.

Six months later, he got his wish.

In Thursday’s, May 22, Northwest Neighbors section, Leapley tells his story of what led to his induction into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame of Valor. His Silver Star, his two Bronze Stars, his Purple Heart. There is a lot more to his story, as the case with most stories.

When he stepped off the plane in March 1969, the Vietnamese heat and smell engulfed him.

“Did I just put my foot in it, or what?” Leapley recalls thinking.

It wasn’t long before he settled on a means to survive. “I accepted the fact that I was a dead man. Once I accepted that I decided I was going to be as good as I could.”

Soon he was part of a two-man noncom team that went from unit to unit teaching soldiers the dirty tricks of the trade and adjusting some attitudes. “So many kids would show up with the attitude ‘We’re gonna kick these people’s ass’. Then they find out it’s not gonna be that easy … A tremendous amount of people don’t make warriors. It’s not that easy.”

For Leapley, it wasn’t easy when he began his tour. Close-quarter killing, firefights, calling in air strikes and artillery, thinking like the enemy soon became second nature. Valuable skills on the battlefield.

Returning home to Miami County was another matter.

“When I came back, I was very hard-nosed. You left a life. When you come back, you’re hoping to come right back in where you left off …

“When you came back, it was extremely difficult.”

That’s all Leapley will say about that.

There were no “We Support Our Troops” signs in windows in the ’70s. Car dealerships weren’t offering military discounts. Uniforms were more often an object of scorn than pride.

A number of years ago, a fellow veteran asked Leapley to visit some high school classrooms to talk about Vietnam. Leapley saw it as his duty. So he went for several years until it got to be too much.

“I was remembering things that I had forgotten, that were best forgotten. I knew it was never really gonna go away. But I wasn’t gonna let it whip me.”

The ground swell of patriotism from the two Gulf Wars also got Leapley thinking about war, warriors, his country and himself.

“It’s wonderful to see how much people care about our returning soldiers,” he said. “But it’s a reminder of what it was like when we returned from Vietnam. How could they forget us?

“But I’m not unhappy and I don’t blame anybody. Every year, life gets a little harder. I’ve had some health problems linked to Agent Orange.

“I guess I always was meant to be a warrior.”

Then he tells how the veterans of the Roman legions were treated under Julius Caesar. They were given small plots of land in the city of Nimes in France, then Gaul. There they could work the land amongst their brother warriors. They did not need the rest of the Empire for which they fought and for which many of their brothers died.

Leapley and his wife share a modest rancher on a tree-shaded Englewood street. His son retired from the Air Force after 24 years. His daughter is married and living in Australia. He likes taking long walks with his Weimaraner.

“I’m not the best social person. I’m best with dogs and animals.”

“I guess what I miss is not having some of my men to talk with,” he said.

Steve Leapley is a man of uncommon valor. He also is a man of uncommon self awareness.

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