For some time now, I have been struck by how Vanderbilt remembers the sacrifices of former students and alumni who gave their lives while serving in World War II. In the lobby of Memorial Gymnasium, a plaque titled “Vanderbilt War Dead: World War II” lists the names of the 144 Vanderbilt men and women who died in that war. During the December 1952 dedication of Memorial Gymnasium, university trustee James Stahlman read each name aloud.
Yet when it comes to remembering and honoring those who died while serving in the Vietnam War, the university’s record is strikingly thin. University Archives has no known list of those former students who died in Vietnam, and the Vietnam War Memorial donated to the university in 2007 has gone largely unnoticed. As history professor Thomas Schwartz, who teaches a course on the Vietnam War at Vanderbilt, wrote to me in 2023, the Vietnam War Memorial “is not very well known to either the faculty or the students,” and “there has been very little attention given to that memorial.” Vanderbilt University has failed to acknowledge the men who died while serving in the Vietnam War and should do more to commemorate their service and sacrifice.
One of those men was 1st Lt. William Settlemire (B.A. ’64). On Feb. 9, 1966, Settlemire was leading his platoon on a reconnaissance mission roughly 30 kilometers southwest of Tuy Hoa, in what was then South Vietnam’s Phu Yen province, when they were ambushed. According to his posthumous Silver Star citation, Settlemire repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire as he moved from man to man, directing evacuation of the wounded and encouraging his troops. He was mortally wounded while attempting to rally his men in a counterattack.
Known as “Set” to his friends at Vanderbilt, Settlemire was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and a country music fan who earned his commission through the Vanderbilt Army ROTC program. He was the first Vanderbilt man to die in combat in Vietnam, nearly 60 years ago.
As Mr. Stahlman spoke in 1952, during the dedication of Memorial Gymnasium, “Listen in reverence, with prayer upon your lips and gratitude in your hearts, as I read their hallowed names.” Yet Settlemire’s name, and the names of many others like him, remain largely absent from Vanderbilt’s collective memory.
My own research into Vanderbilt alumni who served in Vietnam began while writing a biography of Norman Lane (B.A. ’62), an English major who entered Vanderbilt Law School with the Class of 1965 but never graduated. In March 1968, 1st Lt. Lane was killed in action in Vietnam while serving with the Marine Corps. During that research, I contacted Special Collections in 2016 only to learn there were no files from that period on Vietnam or on alumni deaths during the war. Today, there are six Vietnam War-related collections in Special Collections, including the Norman Lane Collection. This is progress, but long overdue.
Two months after my book was published, the special sesquicentennial issue of Vanderbilt Magazine carried a one-page article on campus sculptures, which was dominated by a two-column color photo of William Tarr’s bronze sculpture, “Broken Victory.” The brief caption read, “The Vietnam War memorial was gifted to the university by Minna and Jacob Brussel.” E-mail requests for more detailed information on the war memorial, sent to the magazine and to the Office of the Vice Provost for Arts and Libraries, went unanswered.
There is no record of an official dedication ceremony for the Vietnam War Memorial at Vanderbilt. Searches of the online Hustler archives over the period 2006-2007 indicate that the installation of Broken Victory was not reported.
Tarr completed “Broken Victory” in 1994 as a memorial to Vietnam War veterans who, in Tarr’s opinion, had not gotten the recognition they deserve. He designed the piece to stand as a public memorial. At Vanderbilt, however, it has largely faded into the background as an unintended symbol of the neglect it was meant to confront.
Between 1964 and 1973, Vietnam was mentioned at least 233 times in The Hustler. A review of the digital archive of Vanderbilt Magazine from 1953 to 1973 identifies 10 former students who died during the Vietnam era while serving in the military.
In chronological order, following the dates of their deaths, each of the 10 names is listed with the rank, service, undergraduate school and Vanderbilt class of the deceased.
1st Lt. John Floyd, USMC, A’61, February 8, 1965
Capt. Thomas McEwen, USAF, E’51, February 24, 1965
1st Lt. William Settlemire, USA, A’64, February 9, 1966
1st Lt. Claiborne McCall, USAF, E’63, June 17, 1966
Lt. (jg) Richard DeArmond, USN, A’64, July 13, 1966
Pfc. Charles Taylor, USMC, A’70, November 21, 1967
1st Lt. Norman Lane, USMC, A’62, L’65, March 29, 1968
2nd Lt. John Templeton, USMC, A’67, July 18, 1968
Capt. Joseph Jones, USMC, A’65, October 8, 1968
WO Edwin Sholar, USA, A’69, June 4, 1969
Not all of these men received Vanderbilt degrees, and two did not die as a direct result of combat in Vietnam. However, all deserve remembrance. I fully expect that there are other names of Vanderbilt men who died while serving in Vietnam that do not appear in this list. I encourage Vanderbilt leadership, both at the university level and within various campus organizations, to contribute to the effort that has now been initiated.
In the prologue to “Goodbye, Darkness,” World War II veteran William Manchester wrote of nightmares that began more than 20 years later. He describes confronting his younger self decades after the war, haunted by promises left unfulfilled and sacrifices that were forgotten. His words still resonate today, reminding us that remembrance is a choice we make.
Harvard University has made that choice. The Memorial Church, dedicated on Armistice Day in 1932, is the church for Harvard. On the north wall of the church sanctuary is a large bronze plaque, on which are engraved the names of 22 Harvard men who died in the Vietnam War. Above the list of names is a simple dedication:
To The Enduring Memory Of
The Harvard Men
Who Gave Their Lives
In The Vietnam War
Where there is war, there is remembrance. Harvard remembers, and Vanderbilt should do the same.
March 29 marks the 52nd Vietnam Veterans Day, commemorating the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 1973. More than 50 years later, Vanderbilt has an opportunity and an obligation to recognize the men formally who left this campus and never returned. In my closing message to the Vanderbilt community, I would only add four words: “Do the right thing.”
