Mainer returns from Vietnam village where brother was killed 40 years ago

PORTLAND – Steve Roberts has returned home from a trip to Vietnam that included a visit to the village where his older brother was killed in action 40 years ago.

Roberts said last month’s journey brought the closure he had sought for decades and left him with a desire to help the 70 or so people in the village of Hai Son.

Roberts, who spent more than a week in Vietnam, was particularly touched by his meeting with a 12-year-old boy with deformities that were attributed to his parents’ exposure to Agent Orange, the herbicide used by the U.S. during the war.

“It really brought home a lot of the suffering,” Roberts said. “Right from the get-go, it was really emotional. I could just feel some spiritual things going on.”

Roberts was accompanied on the trip by Carol Lombard Clark, who was his brother’s girlfriend before the 18-year-old Marine left for Vietnam. John Roberts was one of eight servicemen from the same South Portland High School class to die in the war.

Steve Roberts also enlisted in the Marines and volunteered to go to Vietnam, but as an only surviving son was assigned elsewhere. He never really got over his brother’s death.

A visit to South Portland by a replica Vietnam Memorial Wall motivated Roberts to try to find out more. He got in contact with several Marines who had served with his brother. They told him that John Roberts was digging a foxhole near Hai Son when he was shot by a North Vietnamese soldier.

During their visit to the village, Steve Roberts and Clark were led by a Vietnamese guide who had served as a translator for the United States in the war.

“When we went into Hai Son village, it was amazing,” Clark said. “We met so many people, and we were able to put beads around their necks. We were able to give candy to the children, and we were able to hug the people.”

Roberts brought the beads as a sign of his good will. He and Clark took hundreds of photographs at Hai Son and used a video camera to capture images of the landscape.

“I wandered off by myself for a while,” Roberts said. “I imagined what it must have been like 40 years ago. I felt like I was right there.”

He and Clark came away with a desire to help the people in the village, whose greatest needs include clothing and money for health care. The visitors gave money to people in the village, including a pregnant woman who needed to visit a doctor. Roberts’ daughter has put together a package full of clothes to send to Hai Son.

Clark hopes to use the photographs and videos as part of a documentary movie about the experience.

Although their tour of Vietnam included Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the images of Hai Son remain the most memorable for Roberts, who said the emotional impact of the trip has just begun to sink in.

“My life is fulfilled,” he said. “I can move on to the next chapter of my life and be happy.”