麻豆视频

CU Boulder alum and regent emeritus Peter Steinhauer shares Vietnam experiences with students, to be featured in the in-progress documentary Welcome Home Daddy

Peter Steinhauer joined the U.S. Navy because that鈥檚 what young men of his generation did.

鈥淚 was brought up to finish high school, go to college, join a fraternity, get married, spend two years in the military, then work the rest of my life,鈥� he explains. 鈥淥f everybody I went to high school with in Golden, most of the boys went in (the military).鈥�

So, after graduating the 麻豆视频 in 1958鈥攚here he met his wife, Juli, a voice major鈥攈e attended dental school in Missouri, then completed a face and jaw surgical residency, finishing in 1965. And then he joined the Navy.

He had two young daughters and a son on the way, and he learned two weeks after being stationed at Camp Pendleton that he鈥檇 be shipping to Vietnam, where he served from 1966-67.

鈥淗ow many of your grandparents served in Vietnam?鈥� Steinhauer asks the students seated in desks rimming the perimeter of the classroom, and several raised their hands. Steinhauer has given this presentation to this class, The Vietnam Wars, for enough years that it鈥檚 now the grandchildren of his fellow veterans with whom he shares his experiences of war.

Even though Steinhauer had given the presentation before, the Oct. 18 session of The Vietnam Wars, for students in the Honors Residential Academic Program (HRAP), was different: It was filmed as part of the in-progress documentary , which chronicles Steinhauer鈥檚 experiences during and after the war and his deep love for the country and people of Vietnam.

鈥淧ete told me once that he dreams about Vietnam all the time, but they鈥檙e not nightmares,鈥� says Steven Dike, associate director of the HRAP and assistant teaching professor of history, who teaches The Vietnam Wars. 鈥淗e鈥檚 spent his life as a healer and an educator, and I think one of the values (for students) is hearing how his experiences in the war informed his life after it.鈥�

鈥楢n old guy there鈥�

Steinhauer, a retired oral surgeon and CU regent emeritus, served a yearlong tour with the 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Medical Battalion in Da Nang, Vietnam. Lt. Cmdr. Steinhauer was a buzz-cut 30-year-old鈥斺�渁n old guy there,鈥� he tells the students鈥攚ith a Kodak Instamatic camera.

He provided dental care and oral surgery to U.S. servicemen and servicewomen as well as Vietnamese people, and he took pictures鈥攐f the rice paddies and jungles, of the people he met, of the nameless details of daily life that were like nothing he鈥檇 experienced before.

鈥淭his was the crapper,鈥� Steinhauer tells the students, explaining a photo showing a square, metal-sided building with a flat, angled roof. 鈥淭here were four seats in there and no dividers, so you were just sitting with the guy next to you.鈥�

When the electricity went out, he and his colleagues worked outside. When helicopters came in with the wounded, it was all hands on deck.

鈥淭hey鈥檇 be brought off the helicopter and taken to the triage area,鈥� Steinhauer says, the photo at the front of the classroom showing the organized chaos of it. 鈥淎 lot of life-and-death decisions were made there, catheters and IVs were started there. The triage area is a wonderful part of military medicine.鈥�

Steinhauer also documented the casualties, whose starkness the intervening years have done nothing to dim. One of his responsibilities was performing dental identification of bodies, 鈥渙ne of the hardest things I did,鈥� he says.

Then there was Dec. 21, 1966: 鈥淎 guy came in鈥攊t was pouring rain, and we had mass casualties鈥攁nd he came in with trouble breathing,鈥� Steinhauer recalls. 鈥淲e discovered he had an unexploded M79 rifle grenade in his neck. We got it out, but a corpsman said, 鈥楧oc, you better be careful with that, it can go boom.鈥欌��

Not only did Marine Pvt. Raymond Escalera survive a live grenade in his neck, but about 12 years ago Steinhauer tracked him down and visited him at his home in Pico Rivera, California. 鈥淲e call four or five times a year now,鈥� Steinhauer says.

Building relationships

Steinhauer and his colleagues also treated Vietnamese civilians. 鈥淥ne of the most fun parts of my year there was being able to perform 60 or 70 cleft lip surgeries,鈥� Steinhauer tells the students, showing before and after photos.

He then shows them a photo of the so-called 鈥淢cNamara Line鈥� between North and South Vietnam鈥攁 defoliated slash of brown and gray that looks like a wound that will never heal.

Healing, however, has happened, and continues to. 鈥淚 was blessed by the ability to go back to a place where so many horrible things happened during the war and make something beautiful of it,鈥� Steinhauer says.

In the years since he returned from war鈥攁nd met his almost-one-year-old son for the first time鈥擲teinhauer has gone back to Vietnam more than two dozen times. Acknowledging that his experience is not all veterans鈥� experience, he says he has been blessed to learn about Vietnam as a country and not just a war.

鈥淗ow veterans dealt with the war, how they鈥檙e still coming to terms with it as we鈥檙e getting further away from it, are really important issues,鈥� says Mark Gould, director and a producer of Welcome Home Daddy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just a war that we quote-unquote lost, but it was the most confusing war the United States has ever fought. We never had closure, but that didn鈥檛 stop Dr. Steinhauer from reaching out. Our tagline is 鈥楪overnments wage war, people make peace,鈥� and that鈥檚 what he stands for.鈥�

The idea for the documentary originated with Steinhauer鈥檚 daughter, Terrianne, who grew up not only hearing his stories but visiting the country with him and her mom. She and Gould served in the CalArts alumni association together, and several years ago she pitched him the idea for Welcome Home Daddy, which they are making in partnership with producer Rick Hocutt.

The documentary will weave Steinhauer鈥檚 stories with those of other veterans and highlight the relationships that Steinhauer has built over decades鈥攖hrough partnering with medical professionals in Vietnam and volunteering his services there, through supporting Vietnamese students who study in the United States, through facilitating education and in-person visits between U.S. and Vietnamese doctors and nurses. At the same time, Juli Steinhauer has grown relationships with musicians and other artists in Vietnam. Both parents passed a love for Vietnam to their children.

An ugly war, a beautiful country

The stories of Vietnam could fill volumes. In fact, Steinhauer attended a 10-week course called Tell Your Story: A Writing Workshop for Those Who Have Served in the Military in 2008鈥攐ffered through the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and the Division of Continuing Education鈥攁nd wrote Remembering Vietnam 1966-67, a collection of his memories and photographs of the war that he published privately and gives to family, friends and colleagues.

麻豆视频 10 years ago, Steinhauer asked to audit The Vietnam Wars鈥斺�渨ars鈥� is plural because 鈥渨e can鈥檛 understand the American war without understanding the French war,鈥� Dike explains鈥攊n what was only the second time Dike had taught it.

鈥淪o, I was a little nervous,鈥� Dike remembers with a laugh, 鈥渂ut he comes in and is just the nicest guy in the world. I asked if he鈥檇 be interested in sharing his experiences, and he鈥檚 given his presentation during the semester every class since.鈥�

In the Oct. 18 class, Steinhauer shares stories of bamboo vipers in the dental clinic, of perforating vs. penetrating wounds, of meeting baseball legends Brooks Robinson and Stan Musial when they visited the troops, of a since-faded Vietnamese tradition of women dyeing their teeth black as a symbol of beauty.

鈥淚t was an ugly war, but it鈥檚 a beautiful country,鈥� Steinhauer says. 鈥淛ust a beautiful country.鈥�

听

Did you enjoy this article?听听Passionate about history?听Show your support.

听