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Robert Harrison and Jane Hoelscher
Episode 2774 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Vietnam Vet Robert Harrison and his daughter’s service to our country in the Army. The featured story appeared on The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Vietnam Veteran’s Daughter Follows in His Footsteps. It was submitted by Skip Vaughn, an editor with the Redstone Rocket.
In his story, Vaughn reported that Jane Hoelscher remembers her fifth-grade teacher in Michigan calling her dad a “baby killer” for being a soldier in Vietnam in 1965-66. She remembers the protesters at the airport spitting in her dad’s face when he returned home.
She remembers two soldiers mistakenly coming to her house in 1968 to tell them that her dad had been killed in Vietnam even though he was at work at his steel mill job. But none of that stopped Hoelscher from joining the Army in 1975.
Her father, Robert Harrison, first served from 1952-54, before marrying her mother. He joined again in 1956 and served until 1966. He left active duty as a staff sergeant when he returned home in 1966, and he retired from the Army Reserve in 1981 as a first sergeant. Harrison, a heavy smoker, died in 1983 from a massive heart attack. He was 53.
Jane Hoelscher stated this “I believe that the military gave me integrity, dignity, respect – respect for myself and respect for others – and a firm work ethic.”
She shared her thoughts on this nation’s commemoration of 50 years since the Vietnam War.
“We have to learn from our mistakes,” she said. “And we have to face the challenges of the next century. We have to use technology to make our lives better, but technology doesn’t need to rule our lives.”
Listen to episode 2774 and discover more about Army Vietnam Vet Robert Harrison and his daughter’s service to our country in the Army.
