Wineka column: Women golfers hit target with Vietnam soldiers four decades ago

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 21, 2012

SALISBURY – It’s hard for Rodney Cress to forget that first time he walked out of the Vietnamese jungle into the newly established Sherman Firebase.
His diary from Vietnam gives him the exact date – Jan. 10, 1971. It also makes note of a USO program four days later in which the entertainment included golf trick-shot artist Jimmy Nichols and two women from the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour.
Flying by helicopter into a hot military zone took courage, and it was appreciated by guys used to operating in the jungle’s free-fire zone, where anything that moved was considered the enemy.
“That was a big deal for us,” Cress says of the USO show. “They were in a very hot area, too, so they were brave.”
The one-armed Nichols was fantastic, Cress said, and the men enjoyed witnessing the hitting power of the women professionals. Renee Powell and Mary Lou Daniel whacked balls from the firebase toward the jungle.
They gave instructional tips to several soldiers, ate C-rations with the men and signed autographs, many on the guys’ bare arms and backs.
Most important, the women visitors took time to sit around and talk with the homesick men, who by this time in the war were often feeling forgotten amid all the war protests in the States.
“That was really nice,” Cress says of the women’s warm attention.
Before the golfers left, Cress documented their visit by taking some pictures with his camera.
How could Cress have known that 41 years later, he would meet the women golfers again in East Canton, Ohio? Their reunion with former Sgt. Cress, Lt. Doug Paetz and Specialist Fourth Class Kevin Perrier will be part of a Golf Channel segment later this month.
Last year Powell, pro and part owner at the historic Clearview Golf Club, established a rehabilitative golf program for women veterans called Clearview HOPE – “Helping Our Patriots Everywhere.”
Inspired by her veteran friends, she started it with the help of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.
“This program is another outlet for women veterans who don’t want to go to the VA but are looking for help,” Cress says. “It’s the only program in the country like this. It really addresses their needs and gets them back into society. It’s the reason I would love to see it go nationwide.”
Daniel – now Mary Lou Crocker – intends to establish a Clearview HOPE “chapter” where she lives and teaches golf near Dallas, Texas.
The five-week program centers on golf instruction, but it also gives the participants good country air, a safe environment and a chance to share their military experiences with other women.
This summer the program had 35 participants, many of whom had never golfed before. Cress, Paetz and Perrier met many of the participants on their visit.
“The spirit of these girls was just amazing,” Cress says. “They all served in the military and all had some kind of PTSD, but they have not found the VA to be as nearly as helpful as this program.”
Paetz, Perrier and Cress reconnected through Facebook last year. Paetz, who lives in southern Ohio and was head of Cress’ platoon, assisted in helping Cress earn his long-delayed Bronze Star of Valor.
Cress, Paetz and Perrier, a carpenter from Minnesota, began swapping photographs back and forth. It turned out several of the pictures dated back to that USO visit Jan. 14, 1971.
The men remembered the show but not the women’s names. Perrier took the lead role in trying to track down Powell and made the connection after reading a story about her late father, William Powell, the 2009 Professional Golf Association Distinguished Service Award recipient.
“We contacted her on my phone, and she was so excited,” Cress recalls.
The men wanted to thank both Powell and Crocker for the risks they took in visiting them in Vietnam.
Three months of telephone calls and emails led to Powell’s invitation to Crocker and the men to have a reunion around the “Golf in America” series segment being filmed for the Golf Channel.
Powell, the second African-American woman to ever play on the LPGA tour, played professionally for 12 years; Crocker, for 14.
Powell’s father, World War II veteran William J. Powell, was a talented golfer, but he had been excluded from playing many golf courses because of his color.
So he created his own course, taking two years to build Clearview Golf Club, which opened in 1948. It’s considered the first golf course designed, built and owned by an African-American in the United States.
The Ohio Historical Marker at the course says, “A triumph of perseverance over discrimination, Clearview represents the historic postwar era when athletes first broke the ‘color line’ in American sports.”
Cress is not a golfer, but his son, Brian, received some instruction from Powell during their three-night, four-day stay in Ohio.
“Renee easily picked up on what he was doing wrong and corrected his problems,” Cress says.
Nichols, Powell and Crocker flew into Firebase Sherman with a gunship escort. The firebase was located in a war zone about 30 miles northeast of Saigon.
During their three-week trip, the USO volunteers had only one day off. They gave five clinics a day, traveling to firebases as far north as Da Nang and west near the Cambodian border at Pleiku.
Powell told PGA.com, “I remember for three weeks I tried to give all I could and could not give enough. I felt the more I gave the more I received back twice in return.”Powell and Crocker were the first LPGA golfers to travel to Vietnam. They had no idea soldier photographs of their USO visits existed until being contacted by the three veterans.
During his Ohio stay, Cress says, Powell helped to arrange an exclusive tour of the National Football League Hall of Fame in Canton. They also ate with the women and fellow veterans at some of Canton’s finest restaurants.
“It was one of the best four days I’ve had in a long, long time,” Cress said.
No air time has been released for the Clearview HOPE segment on the Golf Channel, though it is expected to be aired three times on the “Golf in America” series. Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com