LEBANON - Local members of the Vietnam Veterans of America were so honored by Vietnam research projects done by Lebanon High School students that they came Friday to thank them in person.

Tom Owen, president of Chapter 585, the mid-valley chapter of the Vietnam veterans, presented a plaque to teachers Jennifer Walter and Ginny Hoke. He gave each student a paper copy and a small POW-MIA pin.

"That show you did last week captured the hearts and minds of many people," said Owen, who is also vice president of the Oregon State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "It is with deepest appreciation and great honor that I present this plaque to your class."

Hoke and Walter team-teach a class called "Voices of the '60s." Working in teams, their students did multimedia research projects on the eight Lebanon men who died in Vietnam.

Those projects were presented to the public May 30 and will be available for view later this month, at www.lhs

voicesofthesixties.blogspot.com.

News coverage of their efforts prompted a flurry of calls and e-mails from friends and family members of the eight men: Daniel DeButts, who died in 1967; James Salisbury, 1968; Lonnie Moore, 1969; George Bamford, 1970; Larry Gatliff, 1970; Douglas Ulm, 1970; Robert Schumaker, 1971; and Arden Hassenger, listed as missing in action.

Bamford's fiancee called the team working on his biography and provided her own memories of her lost loved one. Someone who grew up with Salisbury called to share his thoughts. Total strangers called the students to thank them for their efforts.

"In the beginning, we thought it was going to be just another project, another grade," said junior Victor Montoya. "It turned out to be a lot more than that."

"We knew what we were doing, but we didn't know how big it was going to be," marveled sophomore Sydney Watts.

After production, the class learned of another soldier who died in Vietnam, Randall Manela, who went to school in Lebanon through middle school before moving to Eugene. Some students are now researching his life, Walter said.

It's hard for Vietnam veterans to talk about the war, and even harder, for some, to talk about the reaction they received when they came home, said Owen, who served with Bravo Company 37th Signal Battalion, attached to the 1st Cavalry Division. He was in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.

Protesters pelted his unit's transport bus with vegetables at McChord Air Force Base in Washington. Some time later, someone at a park called him "baby killer."

Those reactions were especially hard on men who had been drafted, Owen said. The memories make the LHS presentations even more deeply moving.

"Never again will we allow another generation of veterans to be coming home and be treated the way we were," he said.

By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald. She can be reached at jennifer.moody@lee.net.