Tet, the Vietnamese New Year
Thursday, January 19th
3:00-5:00pm
The International Cultural Center’s Hall of Nations, Texas Tech University

This is a free event and open to the public.

Traditional Vietnamese food will be served. A special presentation will be given by the Vietnamese Student Association at Texas Tech. Please join us and learn more about the rich heritage and culture that makes Vietnam so remarkable.

January 23rd, 2012 ushers in the Lunar Year of the Dragon. In Vietnam, one of 12 animals of the zodiac represents each year. In many Asian cultures, including Vietnam, the Year of the Dragon is considered to be the most desirable year to be born in, as the dragon brings luck, strength, independence, nobility, wisdom, and a promising future. It is believed that the Year of the Dragon brings good fortune to people, including wealth, health, good marriages, and new children.

The Vietnamese people regard Tet as their most important holiday. Food preparation for Tet is very time consuming and often requires days of cooking and, prior to the celebrations, people clean, paint, and decorate their homes. People avoid cleaning during Tet so that good luck will not be “swept away.”

We hope you will be able to join us on January 19th, 2012 as we celebrate this special event!

For more information, please call 806-742-3742.

Event flyer: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/tet/tet2012.pdf

Today is the U.S. Marines 236th Birthday and the staff of the Vietnam Center and Archive wish to say Happy Birthday and thank you Marines for your service.  We have created a small exhibit of Marine items from our collection to celebrate this day.  To see the exhibit, click on the link below.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/marines/marines11.htm

Today is the Navy’s 236th birthday!  The Vietnam Center and Archive staff want to wish the Navy and all of its personnel past and present a very happy birthday.  To comemorate this day, we have created a small exhibit of Navy items.  You can view the exhibit by clicking on the link below.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/navy/navy11.htm

Lee Roy Herron's mother receives a copy of a proclamation declaring Lee Roy Herron Day in Lubbock

On Thursday, September 30th, the Vietnam Center and Archive was proud to co-host, along with the Texas Tech System Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, the book launch for “David and Lee Roy: A Vietnam Story,” published by the Texas Tech University Press.  Co-authored by Mr. David Nelson and Mr. Randolph B. Schiffer, this is a story of two childhood friends and graduates of Lubbock High School and Texas Tech University, David Nelson and Lee Roy Herron.  While at TTU, both joined the USMC and received commissions.  Nelson joined the JAG and was stationed in Okinawa, while Lee Roy joined the infantry and was sent to Vietnam.  Two months into his tour Lee Roy was killed on the front lines, but not before making an impact on General Wesley Fox.  A chance encounter with Col. Fox in the late 90′s led Nelson to decide to tell the story of his friendship with Lee Roy, and Lee Roy’s actions in Vietnam which earned him the Navy Cross.

The Vietnam Center and Archive has had a relationship with Mr. Nelson and with Lee Roy’s family for over fifteen years, and we are proud to be the home for many of Lee Roy’s personal items relating to his service, and we were honored to be able to participate in this greate event.

The authors will be conducting book signings on Friday, September 30th at 7:00pm at the Barnes and Noble in the Lubbock Mall, and from 10:00am-2:00pm at the United Market Street at 50th and Indiana in Lubbock on Saturday, October 1st.

More Information about the book signings and Lee Roy:

• David and Lee Roy Official Website
• TTU Communications and Marketing Story
• TTU Press
• Oral History Interview with Tony Remero about Lee Roy
• Oral History Interview with Andy Vaart about Lee Roy
• Lee Roy Herron Collection in the Vietnam Archive
• The Lee Roy Herron Scholarship
• Photographs from the Book Launch
• The Last Known Photograph of Lee Roy Herron at Fire Support Base Razor

Today is the Air Force’s 64th birthday, and the staff of the Vietnam Center & Archive want to wish the Air Force a very Happy Birthday!  We have created a small exhibit of Air Force related materials from our collection to celebrate.  You can click here to view the exhibit, or use the link at the bottom of this post.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/airforce/airforce11.htm

Today the U. S. Coast Guard turns 221.  To honor the Coast Guard and celebrate their birthday, we have created a small exhibit of Coast Guard materials from our collection.  The Vietnam Center and Archive staff would like to say thank you to all of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard for all that they do.  Click on the link below to see the exhibit.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/coastguard/coastguard11.htm

Happy Independence Day from the Vietnam Center and Archive, and thank you to all of those who have worked to preserve our freedom!

US Navy In-shore Patrol Craft on the Bo De River, Republic of Vietnam (undated) [permalink]

AH-1G Cobra Attack Helicopter (serial: 67-15532)

The Vietnam Center and Archive will be closed on Monday, July 4th. 

For those of you in Lubbock and the South Plains planning on attending the 4th on Broadway parade, be sure to watch for our AH-1G Cobra Attack Helicopter, which will be pulled in the parade by oral historian Dr. Kelly Crager, and accompanied by Cub Scout Troop 511.

AH-1G Cobra Attack Helicopter, Chuck Carlock Collection

Lubbock’s 2011 4th on Broadway Celebration

Today is the Army’s 236th birthday!  So happy, happy birthday U.S. Army.  To celebrate the day we have created a small exhibit with Army materials from our collection.  To view the exhibit click on the link below.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/Army/army11.htm

The Vietnam Archive is proud to unveil its new program and online exhibit “Techsans in the Vietnam War.” We created this program to honor Texas Tech grads who served in the Vietnam War. Anyone can nominate a veteran for this program. The requirements are that the honoree graduated from Texas Tech University, before or after their service, and served in Vietnam between 1960–1975. If you nominate someone for this program, please assist us by filling out our Techsans in the Vietnam War Biographical Submission Form (available at the link below) and sending us images. If we have documents or images of an honoree in our collection, we will include them on their page, but the more information that you can provide to us the better. If you participate in this program, please consider donating your original images and documents to the archive, as we would love to be able to preserve materials from our TTU grads.

Once we receive your nomination, biography, and images, we will create a web page honoring or memorializing the Tech grad in our “Techsans in the Vietnam War” online exhibit. Please be aware that we want these pages to be well crafted, which means that we may take some time to put up an honor/memorial page, especially if we receive numerous requests at one time. We also reserve the right to exclude information or images from pages for any reason. If we receive a name with no images or biographical information and we are unable to find any information in our collection, we will add the name to a page in the exhibit that lists Tech grads that served and/or died in Vietnam and they will not have an individual page until we receive more information.

To start this program, we have memorial pages for three Texas Tech grads who were military officers who served and died in Vietnam. Please click on the exhibit link below to see the memorial pages for Lieutenant Lee Roy Herron, 1^st Lieutenant Louis K. Breuer IV and Major Samuel B. Cornelius.

To nominate someone for this program please contact Amy Mondt at vietnamarchive@ttu.edu.

To view the exhibit or find the Techsans in the Vietnam War Submission Form click this link. www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/TTU