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Vietnam veterans were bonded by war 50 years ago
Local veterans mark departure for combat from Gainesville
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Dennis Blalock, Doyle Grant and Edwin Doyle look at old photos as they gather Wednesday in Rock Creek Veterans Park from when the three were serving in the Vietnam War. They, along with some other Vietnam veterans, have formed Rock Creek Vietnam Veterans, a group that’s been active in recent years with placing monuments and commemorative, engraved bricks at Rock Creek Veterans Park in Gainesville. - photo by Erin O. Smith
Having graduated from high school in the mid-1960s and just starting lives in small-town Gainesville, 22 young men, mostly in their late teens, didn’t know much about a place called Vietnam. “We never listened to the news, we didn’t keep up with the draft,” recalled Larry Martin. “I didn’t know about all that.”