northwallridersassociation

The History of The North Wall
Since 1959 when the United States officially entered the Vietnam War approximately 40,000 Canadians voluntarily joined and served beside their brothers and sisters from the United States in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Who can explain as to why they volunteered to serve in Vietnam. Perhaps it was because they believed in the right to choose, the right to liberty, the right of unrestrictiveness and privilege. Maybe they believed in freedom and chose to fight for it. Sometimes we take what we have for granted, for those of us who enjoy freedom on an every day basis, we have those who fought for it to thank.

There are 58,209 names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., one hundred and three of those names are of known Canadians who served and did not return from the Vietnam War. Although these Veterans where honored along with their fellow brothers and sisters from the United States they were never recognized by their own country, Canada. For over a century Canada and the United States have stood side by side not only as neighbours, but as one when it came to the freedom that both countries cherish. There is several Vietnam Veterans Memorials located in Canada and in no way do we wish to diminish the importance of any of these memorials. The significance of the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, is that a small group in Michigan U.S.A. called M.A.C.V. (Michigan Association of Concerned Veterans), felt that their Canadian brothers and sisters, who gave their lives for the lives of others deserved to be recognized and accounted for, at home in Canada. This small group of Veterans proceeded to make this dream a reality, They fought through the many hardships that comes with caring, they designed, built, and donated the memorial to be placed on Canadian soil, making this Memorial very special to the families of those who gave their lives for the freedom of others.

The Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dubbed as the "North Wall" rests comfortably in Windsor's Assumption Park, overlooking the Detroit River and the city of Detroit, continually sharing the bond between Canada and the United States. There are one hundred and three names of known Canadians engraved on the center panel of the "North Wall". Included in those names are seven people listed as MIA's/BNR. You may have noticed the phrase "known Canadians". That is because the Canadian Government had passed the "Foreign Enlistment Act" in 1937 and this act was still in effect during the Vietnam War.

Foreign Enlistment Act:

- Any person, who being a Canadian national, whether within or residing outside Canada voluntarily accepts or agrees to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly state.... is guilty of an offense of this act.

At the time Vietnam was considered a friendly state by Canada (very ironic, since they allowed and encouraged the business sector to manufacture and supply war materials to south Vietnam and the Canadian Government itself supplied over 27 million dollars in financial aid to South Vietnam), making it illegal to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. However, the U.S. military found a loop hole in the act and accepted volunteers from Canada. The biggest downfall to the Canadians who volunteered was the fact that they had to list a U.S. city or town as place of birth. After the war, there were no records of Canadians who had served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam. However, through extensive and painfully slow research, some but not all of these volunteers were identified. Unfortunately, we may never know exactly how many have not been found and /or accounted for.

"Freedom" - The state of being free; exemption from slavery, servitude, confinement, or constraint; liberty; independence; political frankness; openness; unrestrictiveness; permission; liberality; particular privileges.

"Recognition" - The act of recognizing or the state of being recognized; formal acknowledgment, conveying approval or sanction; the acknowledgment of something as valid or as entitled to consideration.

A Mother Wins Fight With U.S. Marines To Honour Son Who Died Serving In Vietnam
By Douglas Glynn for: www.midlandfreepress.com

Friday, May 26, 2006

Linda Lorenz will end a 15-year quest to do “one last thing” for her son and hopefully find closure for herself.

The 82-year-old widow will be in Washington D.C. for Memorial Day ceremonies that will mark the adding of the name of Hans Lorenz to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - The Wall, as it is called.

Ever since she discovered in the mid-1980s that his name was not among the thousands on The Wall, she sought to have it placed there. But by 2004 after twice having her request rejected by the U.S. Marine Corps bureaucracy she had all but decided to abandon her quest, because, as she told supporters: “I can’t take another rejection. It is too painful.”

But Maddy and Hal Laffin, from Blyth, Ontario, and two former Marines one a U.S. Congressman continued the fight on her behalf. When she gets her first glimpse of Hans’ name on The Wall, the Laffins will be beside her. Linda acknowledges there will be tears and a flood of memories, especially about Midland.

Like most mothers in post-War Europe, she had wanted a better life for her son. Although widowed, she decided in 1957 to come to Canada. She and Hans, then 11, came to Midland where her knowledge of scientific lenses gained working at the famed Max Planck Institute helped land her a job testing lens for Ernst Leitz Canada Ltd.

She rented an apartment over Thompson’s Appliance Store on King Street (now Jory’s Drug store).

Hans was enrolled in school and joined the Sea Cadets, becoming Sea Cadet of the Year in 1961-62. Councillor Bill Thompson recalls that her mother, Helene Meiners, arrived to join Linda and Hans in 1960. She found work as a domestic companion.

Shortly after graduating from high school, Hans joined the Canadian Navy. In 1965, after his tour of duty, he announced he wanted to join the U.S. Marines. By then the United States was heavily involved in Vietnam and Linda objected to the idea, refusing to sign the necessary papers.

But after he turned 21 in August, Hans slipped across the border and joined the Marines. He landed in Vietnam on Jan. 31, 1966, a member of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, based near Da Nang. At the time the Americans were making peace overtures, while back in the United States opposition to the war was growing.

Hans had only been in Vietnam 70 days, when he was critically injured April 11. A barrel of contaminated gasoline he was disposing of exploded, causing second and third-degree burns to 80 per cent of his body. He called his mother from a field hospital to reassure her that his injuries were minor, but she sensed the truth. He was airlifted to a naval hospital in Oakland, CA. and she flew there to be with him. He died 11 days later.

His body was returned to Midland, where he was buried with full military honours. The funeral attracted large crowds. A contingent of U.S. Marines carried his flag-draped casket and local Sea Cadets provided an honour guard. A simple military plaque marks his grave in Lakeview Cemetery. His grandmother is buried nearby.

Grief stricken, Linda left Midland to visit friends in Texas.

“I just had to go...I wanted to run,” she recalled this week in a telephone from her home in Fort Worth.

“I stayed with friends for awhile, and then took a job as chief photographer at the Amon Carter Museum.” She made occasional trips back to Midland to visit her mother, who decided to remain in Canada because she found Texas too hot.

It wasn’t until long after the Vietnam veterans Memorial was built in 1982 that Linda Lorenz discovered that Hans’ name was not on The Wall.

After being rebuked by the Marine Corps, she let the matter drop.

Then in a twist of fate in 2003 Maddy Laffin who, with her husband, Hal, had been conducting research to find the names of Canadians who might be listed on The Wall discovered there was a Marine buried in Midland by the name of Hans Lorenz. The Laffins were searching for names to add to the North Wall (a Windsor, Ontario, memorial dedicated to Canadians who served in Vietnam).

“We checked Etched in Stone, a web site that lists the thousands of names on The Wall,” said her husband, Hal, “but there was nobody by that name. We knew there was no one by that name on the North Wall.”

Their curiosity led the Laffins to Midland, where they located Hans’ grave and tracked down newspaper accounts of his funeral. When they were told his mother was still alive, they managed to contact her by telephone.

In 2004, they were instrumental in having Hans’ name added to the North Wall memorial in Windsor; a move that rekindled Linda’s hopes of it finally being placed on The Wall in the U.S. capital. Encouraged by the Laffins she once more appealed to American officials. The Marine Corps stood its ground. She told the Laffins she just couldn’t take any more rejections and let the matter drop. But they didn’t.

In their efforts to track the names of Canadian veterans, Maddy had been working with Bruce Swander of Millersville, Maryland, a former Marine. Swander, who describes himself as “an amateur researcher,” said he considered getting Hans’ name on The Wall a “no-brainer. The rules of who is eligible for that are clear.”

Swander was already working on a massive research project into Vietnam casualties and had uncovered a number of cases of people whose names were not on The Wall. He was working on a brief questioning the “policy.” He added Hans Lorenz’s name to others in that brief and sent it down to “the appropriate office at Marine headquarters.”

He got the standard Marine Corps response that Linda had been given years earlier. Then, Swander says, the Marine Corps cut off further communication with him.

Swander, however, knew how to take on the Corps. He contacted his Congressman, Republican Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, also a Marine veteran who had served in Nam, and asked him to intercede with the Defence Department.

Swander recalls that his intention was not specifically to get Hans name on The Wall, but was to get to the bottom of what was going on and why the military was refusing to add further names. He is researching a number of cases of veterans whose families have also received rejection letters over the years.

When the Defence Department replied in February to Congressman Gilchrest’s inquiry, they did not address Swander’s larger question about the “policy.” To his surprise, however, the department reversed the decision concerning Hans, saying that his name could be added.

Swander is convinced there are other accidental death victims left off The Wall, particularly from the early years of the war when the reporting of deaths was more discretionary. “If they routinely denied this lady’s son,” he said, “because of non-hostile causes I have no doubt that the services have been doing this on a regular basis.

A spokesman in the Defence Department reportedly called the Lorenz case an "oversight."

Finally, Linda Lorenz will find some peace of mind of mind on Monday, confident she did everything she could to ensure her son was given the respect he deserved by a nation he gave his life for.

As for the U.S. Marine Corps? People like Bruce Swander probably hope the Corps will begin to live up to its official motto, Semper Fidelis which, translated from Latin, means: "Always Faithful."

There’s no question about how faithful Linda is.

Although she’s lived in Texas nearly 40 years, “Midland remains my home.” she said. “My son is buried in Midland. My mother, too. And when the time comes, my ashes will also be there.”

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