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Omaha Magazine

American Heroes and Dreamers

Oct 26, 2017 04:58PM ● By Doug Meigs
"Chuck Hagel supported the war. His brother hated it. And in the jungles of Vietnam each was destined to save the other’s life.” The text blurb appears on the front cover of a new book by Daniel P. Bolger, Our Year of War: Two Brothers, Vietnam, and a Nation Divided.

An advance copy arrived in the mail while Omaha Magazine was deep in production on our November/December issue. A note from the publishing house explained that the book would be published on Nov. 7, in time for Veterans Day (Nov. 11).

Veterans Day was also the motivation for several military and veteran-themed stories in the full city edition of our latest issue. One of those stories is an artist profile about one of the Hagel brothers. But we didn’t write about the two highlighted in Bolger’s new book.

In 1968, Tom and Chuck Hagel fought the Tet Offensive, battled snipers in Saigon, and chased the enemy through the jungle. Years later, Tom became a law professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Chuck went on to represent Nebraska in the U.S. Senate for 12 years before serving as U.S. Defense Secretary from 2013 until 2015 under President Barrack Obama.

Their younger brother, Mike Hagel, was too young to serve in Vietnam. He would grow up to be a successful artist working in advertising and fine art. A portrait that he painted of his older brother now hangs in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Our latest issue features Mike’s story, titled “Nebraska’s Painter in the Pentagon.”

Another military-focused article about local art is the story of the New Century Art Guild. The nonprofit is dedicated to helping veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder through artwork. The guild has a gallery displaying artworks at City Hall, organizes veteran art exhibitions around town, and also hosts workshops and classes. Twice a month, they even offer art classes to incarcerated vets suffering from PTSD.

Joyce Winfield, Ph.D., writes about the philanthropic work of Bill and Evonne Williams. The Williamses coordinated 11 honor flights from Nebraska (taking 3,235 veterans to the nation’s capital), culminating in The Final Mission. Joyce had previously written the cover story of Omaha Magazine’s May/June issue (excerpted from her book, Forever Heroes: A Collection of World War II Stories from Nebraska Veterans). Her husband, Doug, served in Vietnam and participated in The Final Mission. Her in-depth article in this issue explores the trip from the vantage of other Omaha-area Vietnam vets, and she explains the next phase of the Williamses’ efforts to memorialize members of the U.S. Armed Forces who sacrificed their lives in the years and wars following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Aside from these military stories, the November/December issue’s other major article addresses Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals from the perspective of the local youths. University of Nebraska-Omaha professor Thomas Sanchez, Ph.D., interviewed 10 anonymous DACA recipients, and Omaha Magazine reached out to five additional current, former, and would-be DACA recipients (who volunteered to support the story with their faces, names, and video interviews).

The story of DACA recipients relates back to Chuck Hagel’s time in the U.S. Senate. He was the first Republican co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill that addressed the status of undocumented youths who grew up in the U.S. (aka “dreamers”). The DREAM Act never became law, which led to the policy of “deferred action” under Obama, and current uncertainty facing the youths in the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement to terminate DACA.

This letter was printed in the November/December edition of Omaha Magazine.

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