YAKIMA — As a 1966 graduate of Eisenhower High School, Susan Healey Hickes knew classmates who served in the military and fought in Vietnam.
Even today, the hostility that many faced upon returning from Vietnam still stings. But Hickes and fellow 1966 graduates hope a special scholarship they’ll award next month demonstrates their appreciation for that service — and more.
“One (classmate) I had a long email exchange with said, ‘Don’t thank me for my service; just say welcome home,’ ” Hickes recalled.
“At our 50th reunion, we will be able to say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”
When class members decided to commemorate their 50th reunion, they wanted to give something to the Class of 2016 — the class succeeding them by 50 years.
“We had quite a few Vietnam War-era vets in our class, and we want to honor them,” Hickes said. “To do so, we’ve decided to award a scholarship to a graduate of the Class of 2016 who is a direct descendant of a Vietnam War-era veteran.”
They will award the $10,000 scholarship, funded by classmates, at the school’s awards assembly on May 31. The second-place winner will receive $5,000, Hickes said.
As part of the application process, students wrote personal essays and interviewed a Vietnam War-era veteran; those interviews will be submitted to the Library of Congress to be archived in its Veterans History Project.
The essays will be read by nine judges, several of whom are Vietnam War-era veterans who graduated in Eisenhower’s Class of 1966, including former Sgt. Robert Poznanski, who was stationed at Tuy Hoa Air Base in Vietnam.
Stephani Kinney, a guidance specialist at Eisenhower, has led the effort and has been a crucial part of the process, Hickes noted.
Hickes, who is chairwoman of the scholarship committee, and Kaci Bauman Cunningham are among the 410 students who graduated from Eisenhower in 1966. Classmates live throughout the country, but hold reunions every five years.
Mini-reunions
They more recently started annual “mini-reunions” at different locations; the idea for the special one-time scholarship arose during one such reunion last fall in Bend, Ore.
Those attending were talking about their 50th reunion and a class gift. Usually that’s something permanent for the school campus, but they didn’t want to do anything attached to the building because it’s not the same structure they attended.
Considering that “quite a few young male classmates, and some female” ended up in the military during the Vietnam War era, and at least three served in the war, classmates decided that the most meaningful thing they could do would be a scholarship honoring Vietnam War-era veterans, Hickes said.
Cunningham said she recalled how some “came home to people spitting on them, just terrible things.”
“We thought this might be a really nice way to say to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” said Cunningham, who has kept about 300 classmates up to date with e-blasts.
Hickes mentioned the idea to Eisenhower Principal Jewel Brumley when she traveled from her Maryland home to Yakima last September before the mini-reunion.
“(Brumley) was highly enthusiastic about the idea, and since none of us know anything about scholarships, her encouragement, that’s what solidified for us what we could do,” Hickes said.
The research and oral history angles of the application process came after a friend suggested the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress. Then Kinney joined the effort.
Kinney first spoke to students in almost all of the senior English classes — about 250 altogether. After narrowing that down to 13 eligible students, she got commitments from five, then that number dropped to four who applied before the deadline.
“There were some uncles, or neighbors,” Kinney said, but the applicant had to be a direct descendant of a Vietnam War-era veteran. Of the four applicants, three have grandparents who served, while the fourth is a parent.
Two of the grandparents are deceased, inspiring Kinney to find “surrogate” Vietnam War-era vets whom the applicants could interview.
“One is a substitute teacher at school,” Kinney said. “The other one, her family has a friend very involved in the VFW and he came in to do it.”
Jacob Dolan, also a senior, came in two days during his spring break and after school to record the interviews, Kinney said. He then transferred them to flash drives for the judges.
Kinney mailed to each of the judges a flash drive that includes the applications, audio interviews and the applicants’ personal statements of the effect participating in this project had on them.
She was impressed by what the students wrote.
“They all recognized that freedom is not free and they all have much greater respect for servicemen,” she said.
The scholarship application process is unique in that it’s a learning experience for all applicants whether they win or not. They’re also creating a lasting archive at the Library of Congress and thus making an important contribution to American history.
“That’s what we love about this,” Hickes said.
