The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988-- Page 9 PROFILE BY RYAN TUTAK Charles Tackett had another rough night. He spent the day looking for a job and was ready for a good night's sleep. But he has no home, and the Ann Arbor Homeless Shelter turned him away because he arrived past the 8:30 p.m. curfew. Like many other nights, Tackett ended up trying to get some rest on a park bench along the Huron River. "People walk by and look at me," he said. "They want to know what's going on. Some wake me up and ask me how I feel. I say, 'I'm fine."' THAT'S NOT entirely true. Tackett has been without work and a place to stay for most of the six years he has lived in Ann Arbor. He has bone marrow cancer, which he attributes to exposure to Agent Or- ange during the Vietnam War. But Tackett seems to weather the tough times well, mostly by keeping active in town and on campus. Dur- ing the day, you might see him drinking a cup of coffee in the Union or relaxing on the Diag if the weather is nice. Wearing a camouflage jacket, a Vietnam veteran belt buckle, a Michigan baseball cap, and headphones, Tackett is hard to miss. Most students know Tackett from his efforts to es- tablish a national memorial holiday for Vietnam veter- ans. The 39-year-old Kentucky native served in the United States Army's 82nd Airborne division in Viet- nam for two years beginning with the Tet offensive in 1968. Tackett wants the memorial holiday to remind Am- ericans that veterans of unofficially declared wars such as Vietnam do not receive benefits or health care. The holiday is necessary, Tackett said, because wars fought under the auspices of "police actions and conflicts" have become common tactics for the U.S. in Third World countries such as Nicaragua and Honduras. "IT'S A SAD scene to fight for your country and come back to nothing," Tackett said, adding that payments for his cancer treatment come, in part, from social security. "The holiday is vitally important to me. The future for our veterans is very bleak."' Despite the consequences, Tackett said he doesn't regret fighting in Vietnam. "It gave me a chance to fight for my country," he said. "I wanted to serve my country and fight commu- nism. What the heck do you know when you're 17?" But second thoughts entered his mind as early as the plane ride overseas: "I was worried and scared. But, like the sergeant said, 'It's too late to call mother now."' FOND MEMORIES of the war are few, Tackett said, but have stayed with him. "There was a certain amount of brotherhood," he said. "We figured we were trapped in a situation where we couldn't get out so we made the best of it. But no matter how bad a vet will speak of it or try to put it in the past, he can't." Tackett said he tries to keep the bad memories of Vietnam separate from the rest of his life, but one inci- dent sticks in his mind - a fire-fight involving 700 soldiers on a plot of land no bigger than the grass area around the Diag. "We had heavy artillery, napalm all over the place. Both sides stood up after the battle was over, and we looked at each other in complete silence. ILguess we were looking at what was done. That was strange... to DAVID LUBLINER/Daily Still Fighting Vietnam veteran Charles Tackett struggles for a home and job - and a national holiday to honor his comrades. Mass.) and Rep. Carl Pursell (R-Mich.). He has spent the last year at the Michigan Student Assembly gathering local support for the holiday from MSA, the Eastern Michigan University student gov- ernment, and the Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Ypsilanti city councils. These groups backed Tackett's successful ef- forts for a local holiday on campus May 7 - the same day the last American troops arrived home from Vietnam. "People of MSA have been forced to realize that stereotypes of the Vietnam veteran, and people of dif- ferent backgrounds and education are pretentious and counter-productive," said MSA representative Corey Dolgan, a University graduate student. "MSA rep- resentatives realized that they could learn something from these groups, whose contributions are significant and ultimately vital to any progressive movement." However, not all veterans admire Tackett. Norm Fulson, assistant state services officer for the Michigan office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the VFW does not endorse Tackett's project. "CHARLES TACKETT is not sanctioned by our organization to do what he is doing," Fulson said. "It's strictly his idea. You don't need a one-man crusade." Fulson added that the VFW can organize the holiday officially and more efficiently. "We can go through the proper legal channels to have it declared," he said. But Tackett thinks the VFW's approach is too bu- reaucratic. "If I went through the veterans' organiza- tions, the policies and guidelines would block out many other people who have worked on the project." "It would be just another veterans' move and would not be a healing process of bringing together in a civil manner the hatred and bigotry of one American to an-' other for their various stands on Vietnam." SO TACKETT remains in Ann Arbor, working somewhat independently for his dream."It's hard for the poor to live on a rich man's soil," he said. "But I knew that if there was a place to start the holiday pro- ject, it would be here. Ann Arbor has been known to accept new ideas and dreams, even though it has its problems." Public exposure from working on the Vietnam vet- erans' holiday, however, has not improved Tackett's chances of finding work or a place to live. In fact, he can't devote himself full-time to the holiday because he spends much of the first part of his day deciding how he will live the second. "IT'S NOT EASY being homeless," he said. "But you get used to anything after a while. You just got to be a survivor. Life keeps me going. A lot of it is a blessing in itself." Tackett helped establish the homeless shelter at the abandoned St. Andrew's church. "It ain't easy to come to a city and find yourself homeless," he said. "What grabs me is that the world knows these issues are going on and they don't care. They feel they don't need to be bothered." Nevertheless, Tackett said he is happy with life in Ann Arbor. "I probably will live in Ann Arbor the rest of my life," he said. "That is, if I can can ever get to the point when I can afford it. I sort of have adopted the town." sit up and look at your enemy as if to say, 'What in the hell have we done?"' And he doesn't appreciate attempts by commercial filmmakers to capture such events, regardless of the accuracy. "When you serve over there, it makes it dif- ferent," he said. "A documentary (about the war), yes. But Hollywood making money off of death, no!" LAST WINTER TERM, two University students convinced Tackett to attend a class examining the war's impact on art called "Ashes and Embers." There he watched his first documentary on Vietnam, The War at Home, which portrayed the conflicting and often hostile views of Americans about the Vietnam War. The film apparently had an emotional effect on Tackett, though he is reluctant to talk about it. "It was a really moving experience," LSA senior Anne Hooghart recalls. "The movie obviously touched him quite a bit." Tackett's war days were cut short when he was in- jured by a hand-grenade in 1969. He spent the next five years in a wheelchair with his family in Pikerville, Kentucky, where he married. He and his wife headed for Dayton in 1974 but soon bunked up with a friend in Ann Arbor when social security checks were no longer enough to support them. Life took a turn for the better in late 1975 when Tackett's health improved, and he began to manage a prospering apartment complex in Detroit. But in 1979 he suffered a sudden nervous breakdown. His wife left him soon after. TACKETT DECIDED to devote his life to the Vietnam veterans' holiday about five years ago, when he noticed an increase in the incidence of undeclared world wars. He began his mission with a peace march in November, 1983, when he walked from Detroit to Washington, D.C. Tackett recalled'the march as unpopular - he was "beat up in Charleston," doused with lighted cigarettes and urine in Toledo, and only recognized for his efforts in a small Fairfax, Va. newspaper. "As the miles added up, it turned into a battle for the American way of life, constitution, and the ever-ad- vancing cruelty we place on one another," he said. He completed a similar march to petition support for the holiday in 1985, but weak legs have forced him to give up such long walks. TACKETT CLAIMS to have amassed more than 1,000,000 signatures in support of the holiday, includ- ing national legislators Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- NI" cf' rt ' a ''CO y I ,.tt eil' y O I; CI) COX A :O *1 _ Gl A 4. ,roCZ N C 3O' ,3O 00 4,. '"- 4v- CJ ' 1.4 j. J9 - e" r, 41 ) " . - a 6 $y v e . 1 .{s 1' .C V' 1 l C IsS 9 O 3 Lam y e t Uk e ~p &1 1 v ,e i COtio 4 elk-e. \0 e e poi e ee cJy - - x ° o 11 La 1, , e T l NJ v J 9 30pr7 . M~jor F~ych pa~'c- 12.30 am- . 56C0N1capo 3:1; a.m. fire ty r4r~ r:tn A- 0>.. V7 I °FtiaCiLIuder wa WitiI lI U(ee..tw ovo. +~4bl'e t. IIndr S:+e~e noI I Q jO am.ae z comPhe.re