It was a long time to wait to be recognized.
Vietnam Veteran Willie Laughinghouse was trying hard to hold back tears as he listened to the description of this year’s Veteran of the Year.
Somewhere in the speech, the description began to sound more and more familiar.
“I thought, ‘God, he must be talking about me,’ ” he said. “Immediately, I started to choke up.”
And then it was announced: Laughinghouse was being inducted into the Lenoir County Veterans’ Hall of Fame.
He had been told to make sure to be at the American Legion Post 43 meeting on Nov. 10. He wasn’t sure why he was told to do so, because he regularly attends and planned to be there, anyway.
He said he couldn’t have ever imagined receiving the honor, and he thought about how athletes must feel being inducted into a sports hall of fame.
“The next thing that came into my mind … All these years, it was the Hall of Shame,” Laughinghouse said about Vietnam veterans. “So we go from the Hall of Shame to the Hall of Fame. It’s a huge jump because of all the ridicule we received when we came back from Vietnam.”
Laughinghouse, 66, was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and deployed to Cu chi, Vietnam, for a year as a specialist in the 25th Infantry Division, Fort Bragg.
From the first day he arrived, the base was being attacked with mortar fire. He hadn’t had a chance to know the layout of the base.
“You don’t even know where to run to,” he said.
Later, he was driving a truck filled with ammunition and powder when it was hit by sniper fire. He pushed his buddy out of the truck and tried to steer the burning truck away from a crowd of people.
When he tried to get out, the door was jammed and he attempted to get through the canvass top.
“Miraculously, I don’t know how I got out,” Laughinghouse said. “I tore a hole through the top of the truck.”
He wound up with extensive burns on his face and arms and spent the next 30 days in the hospital. And then he was right back to work wiring communications in the artillery unit.
Laughinghouse’s quick thinking and acting earned him a Purple Heart.
When the Greenville native reached American soil in California, he was expecting a warm welcome. Instead, protestors and demonstrators were throwing rocks and eggs and shouting, “Baby killers”” Laughinghouse said.
“You’re trying to get home to your family and you’re just about going through another war,” he said.
The war ended April 1975. It was a senseless war that left 55,000 men dead, Laughinghouse said.
“Everything we fought for,” he said, “they gave it to the Vietnamese.”
Instead of staying bitter, Laughinghouse eventually began focusing his energies on other veterans
“I’ve been able to help so many veterans obtain help,” he said, “and they truly need it.”
In the last three years, Laughinghouse has lost two friends to the effects of agent orange. A number of others locals he knew of have died of cancer from agent orange, as well.
“I think the government has hid that so long knowing that was agent orange causing (the cancer),” he said.
Those who are still here are left with the mental scars and thoughts of suicide.
“Even now, it’s a struggle,” he said. “A lot of guys think that there’s no place for them to go. But I have taken guys to a counselor, to doctors, to therapists, to group settings to get them to where they need. A lot of them don’t think they need help.”
Laughinghouse, the son of Henry Jack and Nealie Anderson Laughinghouse, both deceased, was once in their condition — angry and not believing he needed help.
“I had to apologize to my children,” he said.
But for his father, it was too late. Soon after getting out of the military in 1969, he got into an argument, which led to a fight, with his father.
“That had never happened to me,” he said, his eyes beginning to get teary. He died before I could see the help that I needed to apologize.”
For the past 10 years, Laughinghouse has been a member of the Georgia K. Battle Friendship Club in Kinston, organizing the breakfasts and fundraisers for senior outings. He was the only veteran in the club and has since encouraged many other seniors to join.
“My greatest thing is helping the seniors,” he said.
Laughinghouse said he also enjoys working with his “comrades and veterans” through Post 43.
“If I can do something to make someone’s life better,” he said, “then my life is not in vain.”
About 45 years since he returned home from Vietnam, Laughinghouse can now feel the satisfaction of being recognized for having served his country.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.