Clyde J. Benally, a Navajo who lives in Cortez, was honored March 2 for his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
Clyde was drafted into the Army in 1968 and served until 1970. He was stationed at a variety of bases in the U.S. including Fort Ord (California), Fort Benjamin Harrison (Indiana) and Fort Riley (Kansas). He was deployed to Vietnam and was in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the first major unit of the Army to serve in Vietnam, beginning in 1965.
Benally told The Journal that he was drafted when he was a senior at Fort Lewis College.
“I got the notice three weeks before my graduation,” Benally said. “No parties or no celebrations. I got my diploma and went home.”
Benally was awarded a Quilt of Valor in Cortez at the Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park. He was surrounded and celebrated by family members and friends.
“I got my blanket, and it’s warm,” Benally said about his quilt. “It has a tremendous amount of meaning because we didn’t get the accolades and parades when we came back. We were shunned and called all kinds of names. People even tried to spit on us.”
The detailed quilt included colors that are meaningful to Navajo culture.
“She incorporated the colors that are meaningful as part of my culture,” Benally said, adding that he plans to wear the quilt around his shoulders at the Vietnam veteran celebration in Shiprock, New Mexico, on Friday, March 29.
“I’m planning on wearing that when I go over there to show it to people,” Benally said. “I may even bring the certificate that came with it.”
Benally has been very active in Cortez, working with the Cortez Cultural Center, the Elks Lodge and Boy Scouts.
Benally said he got bored during retirement and became a seasonal ranger at Mesa Verde National Park. He was also a lecturer at the University of Colorado and served on the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs and the board of directors at Southwest Memorial Hospital.
His award ceremony was conducted by Jane Hile, a member of the Quilts of Valor Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit made up of more than 11,000 volunteers. Hile said that she and her husband recently moved to Cortez and she is the only Quilts of Valor member in the area.
“I hope that we will eventually get a group going here,” Hile said. “Our single mission is to cover veterans and service members touched by war with healing and comfort by honoring them with a quilt.”
Hile said she was honored to provide Benally with a quilt.
“He just seems like an excellent human being,” she said.
Benally said he was appreciative of the organization for providing him with a quilt, adding that he was glad he met the women who made it.
“I was surprised at how nice it was,” Benally said. “It was special.”
Quilts of Valor was started in 2003, and according to Hile, Catherine Roberts started the organization after a dream about a young man, who was deployed. In her dream, the young soldier was sitting on a cot looking forlorn and hunched over, and then “was wrapped in a quilt and his whole demeanor changed. He was sitting upright and confident. After that, she decided that quilts equal healing, and she started this foundation,” Hile said.
Now, the foundation is 20 years old with 11,000 active members.
“It’s quilters from all over the country, and we make quilts for that single mission,” Hile said.
Hile shared that her husband Greg Hile, who is also a Vietnam War veteran, was awarded a Quilt of Valor years ago and it changed their life, inspiring her to get involved herself. She has been a member for 10 years.
“It really changed our lives,” Hile said. “Ten years ago or more, the situation with the Vietnam veterans was still pretty bad in terms of how the country accepted them back. He didn’t know that there were people who wanted to thank him for his service other than his family members.”
“His quilt has all these people’s names. and they’re from all over the country,” Hile continued. “He was just amazed and it changed his pride in his service. So from that, I decided that I needed to get involved and learn how to quilt in order to make Quilts of Valor.”
To find more information on the Quilts of Valor Foundation, visit www.QOVF.org.
