From the archives: How a celebration inspired a Vietnam vet to find his comrades

This story was originally published in Newsday on May 30, 2005

In the photograph, Ron Campsey looks square into the camera, a broad smile on his face. He is clutching his 6-month-old daughter, Sarah, in one arm, a sign announcing his Vietnam years in the other. His partner, Shana Crosier, stands over his right shoulder.

On his head, Campsey wears the helmet that had saved his life nearly 20 years earlier. And, in some ways, the parade where that photograph was taken in 1985 also saved him, creating a bridge to his service in Vietnam, and to the men he had lost.

"It was the first time I felt proud of my service again," recalled Campsey, now 62 and living in East Quogue. "I wanted to see if I could find some of the people who were with me."

So Crosier made the sign that advertised his unit and his phone number, and after some prodding, convinced him to travel to New York City, to a parade honoring those who served in Vietnam. They stayed with friends in Manhattan and then used the subway, a foreign concept. "It was completely packed with veterans, and a man said, 'Let the sergeant in,'" Campsey said. "People squeezed in and someone gave their seat to Shana and the baby. It was very moving."

At the foot of Brooklyn Bridge, near City Hall, he ran into two old comrades. "It was an unbelievable thing," he said.

That was what brought him across the lens of Newsday photographer Audrey Tiernan. "I really liked the picture, his face lit up, really into the moment," Tiernan recalled Thursday. "That was an amazing day. They were finally getting acknowledged, and a lot of them were very swept up into it."

The photograph captured one moment in time. There is a lot more to the story.

Campsey was drafted relatively late, at the age of 24, and was promoted in the field to sergeant. He served in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968 with the First Battalion, 18th Infantry. He earned a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart during the war.

He earned the Silver Star for charging and knocking out Viet Cong fighters spraying machine gun fire from a bunker, according to the official citation. That was just after he was nearly killed by a rocket-propelled grenade round.

"I could have been killed about five times that day," he said.

But he also suffered profound losses. In just one day in the area north of Saigon known as the Iron Triangle, 15 members of his 25-man squad were wounded. Four, including his lieutenant, were killed, he said. A bullet snapped through Campsey's helmet, just missing his skull.

"I remember that, on the day before, I had raised the straps on the helmet about a half-inch so it sat higher on my head," he said. "That's what saved me."

Buoyed by the parade, Campsey was inspired to track down his old unit mates. Using a list of names he had saved, Campsey found five comrades in 1985. Then, in 1987, he hosted a reunion of 20 men, including the unit's colonel.

"Each time a car drove up, it would take five minutes and then you would remember each other."

He also tracked down the families of men from his unit who had died in combat, including his lieutenant, Robert Price. Price was killed on May 4, 1968. His son is now serving in Iraq.

"I called the mothers and fathers and they would say, 'Why are you calling?' and 'Why didn't someone call before?'" he said. "I talk to them every May 4."

Campsey was proud of his effort to reconnect with his comrades, but it also weighed on him. "After seeing that a lot of them were struggling, I went into another deep state of depression," he said. "We went through bankruptcy, and foreclosure. It's been a struggle."

The period was also difficult for his family, he says. He has seven daughters and a son.

"My older children didn't understand it, and the younger ones had to live through the wrath," he said.

These days, Campsey says the family, which runs the New Moon restaurant on eastern Long Island, has almost worked its way out of financial difficulty, and he is taking medication and undergoing therapy.

Campsey and Crosier are getting married on June 26 after more than two decades together. He plans to reach out once again to his comrades.

"Before, I would have said it's sunny now, but it's going to cloud up later," he said. "And now, I say it sure is sunny out and just look at the leaves."