Date published: Sunday, August 22, 2004
By Scott Beveridge, Staff writer

They believe the tall, generous American who visits Vietnam is sent from heaven.

To some poor peasants in Danang, Vietnam, there seems to be no other reason why Anthony W. Accamando Jr. spreads so much kindness in their villages.

"The people ... think he is Buddha," said Thanh Armagost, a native of Saigon now living in Reynoldsville. She is a friend who shares his passion for seeking a positive relationship between the United States and Vietnam, especially in Danang, where he served in the Vietnam War.

Accamando, 60, of Eighty Four, returned to Vietnam in 1998 after reading Lewis B. Puller Jr.'s Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography, "Fortunate Son," published seven years earlier. Puller, who committed suicide after writing the book, lost both legs when he stepped on a land mine during the war. He wrote about the need among Vietnam veterans to forgive themselves and U.S. politicians over the war that claimed the lives of 58,000 American soldiers.

"He helped me understand my experience there," Accamando said.

He may have other reasons deep in his soul that might shed light on his motives now in Vietnam. But like many Vietnam veterans, he chooses to remain quiet about his military role.

As a U.S. Army lieutenant, Accamando served from 1966 to 1967 in civil affairs and volunteered in a Danang orphanage. He also dug water wells and inoculated civilians to improve the quality of life in the coastal city in Central Vietnam.

He is upset by television reports on today's war in Iraq because they focus on combat and other ugly aspects of war without mentioning any positive accomplishments of the troops.

"In Iraq on a daily basis, hundreds of good things are occurring by the military," Accamando said. "It was the same thing in Vietnam."

Puller's book also sparked a desire in Accamando to help the Vietnamese as he did as a young officer.

"I also felt an obligation to do it because I was able to do it. I survived," he said.

He made the nearly 8,000-mile return journey with George D'Angelo, 59, another Vietnam veteran from Eighty Four. They became lifelong friends after meeting in the 1960s while enrolled in ROTC at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.

D'Angelo said he had little contact with the Vietnamese while he flew U.S. Air Force bombing missions in Vietnam in 1967. "I'm sure what was happening on the ground wasn't pretty," he said.

Neither man was surprised at Vietnam's poverty rate in 1998, which stood then at about 50 percent. Both had traveled to other Third World countries and knew what to expect.

While the Vietnamese government claims it since has reduced poverty through economic development, impoverished children continue to face extreme hardships in the developing country.

Filthy toddlers were left unattended at various times over several days in July, sleeping in their urine on a sheet of black plastic on the sidewalk a half-block from a four-star hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. They drank from a dirty plastic cup that collected rain water dripping from a roof.

Children in impoverished villages are routinely killed or injured by touching off unexploded bombs or artillery that remain scattered across the country, relics of the Vietnam War. Many babies continue to be born with birth defects that some claim are caused by toxic chemical warfare used by U.S. troops to defoliate forests.

Accamando and D'Angelo eventually were affected by the plight of the children while visiting a dilapidated public school with a dirt floor and leaking thatch room in the Central Highlands.

"We looked at each other and said, 'Maybe we could do something,'" said Accamando, a semi-retired former cable company executive. "As the days went on, George said, 'Let's just do it.'"

After returning home, they partnered with the Vietnam Children's Fund, a nonprofit that was born from Puller's dream to build a new school in each of Vietnam's 64 provinces.

"Then we just started beating on doors," Accamando said. "A year later we had the $50,000 and the school was built."

They thought the mission was accomplished, that their work in Vietnam was over when the school was dedicated.

"The group said, 'That was such a wonderful experience. What else can we do?'" Accamando said.

They were inspired to form their own nonprofit, the Friends of Danang of McMurray, and continue building new schools on their former battlegrounds. They went on to raise $150,000, enough to build six others and a medical clinic. Last year, it was time to move on to something other than "bricks and mortar" projects, Accamando said.

He made an unannounced visit in Washington, D.C., to World Vision International, one of the world's largest Christian missionary groups. "One thing led to another," he said. World Vision had a Pittsburgh office and a goal to conduct a $21,000 study in Danang's Hoa Vang district to determine how many children need artificial legs or orthopedic surgery. World Vision also wanted to know if their injuries were caused by land mines or unexploded ordnance from the war.

The Friends of Danang agreed to fund the study, launching the Let Them Walk Again project. The study identified 1,284 children who needed $150 each to pay for surgery or other medical costs. Accamando's group then set a goal to raise $192,000 to meet their medical expenses. To date, the effort has secured $66,000. Most of the children who receive help were born with crippling birth defects.

It seems that everyone from college students to corporate officials fall victim to Accamando's charisma and give him money for these children.

"He's like a hammer in a velvet glove," said Jeanne Hungerman, World Vision's executive director in Pittsburgh.

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