Panel One - The Vermont Experience
RUSTY SACHS
Rusty grew up in Norwich, Vermont, where he still lives.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1964 after “flunking out of Harvard”. After two years of training, they made him an officer and a helicopter pilot. He arrived in Vietnam as a July 1966 replacement pilot; flew 725 combat missions before returning to serve another few years as a helicopter instructor.
Rusty returned to Harvard, practiced law for twenty plus years, while also teaching as an adjunct instructor of combat leadership for the Marine Corps.
WILLIAM DONAHUE
Bill is a retired lawyer after practicing law in Vermont for over 41 years.
To avoid being drafted into the Army Bill enlisted in the Marine Corps. His Military Occupational Specialty was "Infantry Officer". He was sent to DaNang, Vietnam as a second lieutenant on October 9, 1967. He was assigned to the First Marine Division, First Regiment, Second Battalion, Golf Company. There he served as a Rifle Platoon Commander, and later as Weapons Platoon Commander. While he was with Golf Company, the battalion's base was first in Quang Tri and later at Con Thien.
In February 1968, Bill was transferred to the MP Company, Headquarters Battalion, of the First Marine Division. He stayed in the MPs until he departed Vietnam on October 30, 1968. He spent most of this time stationed in Phu Bai. He was promoted to first lieutenant in1 April 1968.
JOHN TRACY
John is a graduate of ̽̽, former state legislator, and retired U.S. Senate staffer after working for Senator Leahy as a Field Representative and State Director.
He served in Vietnam from December 1971, until November 1972. He was with the 1st Signal Brigade for a few months as a telecommunications specialist, then Head Clerk for the Communications Center. He obtained the rank of Sergeant and transferred to the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Calvary Division, as a door gunner and then crew chief.
When the 1st Cavalry stood down, John was transferred to the 358th Aviation Detachment, 525th Military Intelligence Group, serving as helicopter crewman.
Panel Two - The Anti-War Movement on U.S. Campuses
Gregory Craig
When Greg was President of the Harvard Undergraduate Council in 1966-1967, he led a group of 100 student body presidents from colleges and universities all over the United States in writing a letter to President Lyndon Johnson — on behalf of their student body constituents — raising questions about U.S. policy in Vietnam. In response, the Secretary of State invited a group of students to meet with him to discuss Vietnam.
That meeting resulted in alienating a whole generation of student leaders who then became involved in the successful effort to dump Johnson in 1968.
Greg went on to work for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as his senior foreign policy advisor, for Secretary of State Madeline Albright as the Director of Police and Planning in the State Department, for President Clinton during his impeachment, and for President Obama as his first White House Counsel.
Panel Three - The Things We Left Behind: Dealing with the Legacies of the War
SUSAN HAMMOND
Susan, the daughter of a U.S. Vietnam veteran, became interested in post-war Southeast Asia after traveling to Vietnam, and Cambodia in 1991. In 1996, after earning her MA in International Education from NYU, Susan returned to Vietnam to study Vietnamese. She became involved in fostering mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and addressing the long-term impacts of war while working as the Deputy Director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development from 1996 to 2007. During that time, she lived in New York, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In 2007, Susan returned to her home state of Vermont and founded the War Legacies Project to continue addressing the long-term health and environmental impacts of war, including the impact of Agent Orange on Vietnam and Laos. In 2019, she received the Vietnam Order of Friendship medal for her more than two decades of work in Vietnam.
CHUCK CASEY
Chuck Casey recently retired from the Marine Corps after a 25-year career spanning enlisted and officer assignments across aircraft maintenance and international affairs mostly concentrated on the Indo-Pacific region. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Marine Attache at U.S. Embassy Hanoi, where he focused on political – military issues and collaborating with Vietnam on humanitarian and legacy of war challenges. From 2020-2022, he served as the Deputy Commander of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s Detachment Two in Hanoi, where he focused on accounting for Americans still missing in action from the war. Before retiring, he served at Headquarters Marine Corps focusing on Indo-Pacific ally and partner relations. The son of a Marine who served two combat tours in Vietnam, Chuck is committed to humanitarian and legacy of war cooperation and advancing reconciliation with Vietnam.
SERA KOULABDARA
Sera serves as CEO of Legacies of War and Chair of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions Coalition. As an expert in mine action, Sera has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, NBC, Responsible Statecraft, among other publications. Sera and her team received the inaugural Humanitarian Award in 2022 from the Government of Laos for their efforts in advocating for U.S. funds for bomb clearance, victims’ assistance, and explosive ordnance risk education.
ANDREW WELLS-DANG
Andrew leads the Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. The initiative was launched in 2021 with Congressional encouragement and support, in part to continue the efforts of Senator Leahy and others to address both physical and interpersonal legacies of the Vietnam war. He lived in Vietnam for a total of 20 years starting in 1997, including work with Catholic Relief Services and Oxfam and research and writing on civil society and politics in Southeast Asia. Andrew speaks fluent Vietnamese.