Final Salute

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Nineteen-year-old Gary Butler already had four years experience driving trucks and a commercial driver’s license when he volunteered for the United States Navy.

Sent to Vietnam as a Seabee, the Pittsfield man hauled “anything from toilet paper to bombs” for a year before coming home to continue work in trucking and raise a family.

Butler died May 26, 2022, his 75th birthday, due to prostate cancer caused by Agent Orange exposure while serving his country in Vietnam in 1966-67.

Now the veteran, who shared little about his military service other than his pride in serving his country, will be recognized by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s In Memory Program.

“We’ve been trying to do as much as we can to honor his memory,” said Christina Butler, who nominated her dad for the recognition and highlighted it at Memorial Day, the day set aside each year to honor men and women who died while serving in the military.

More than 500 Vietnam veterans, including 17 from Illinois, will be inducted in June into the program which enables families and friends of those who came home and later died the opportunity to have them be forever memorialized.

Gary Butler likely would have said the recognition wasn’t necessary.

“My dad would have said he had a good, long life,” Butler said. “He was grateful he got to come home and have a family. He knew a lot of people that did not get to come home.”

But she said it’s important to recognize the sacrifices made by service men and women that can last a lifetime.

“Vietnam wasn’t considered a war. It was considered a conflict, and even the government for years denied what people went through,” she said. “This In Memory program is another opportunity to feel gratitude and to recognize them for their service and sacrifice.”

The youngest of six children, Gary Butler was the first to go to Vietnam. Another brother also served in the conflict, and a third brother made a career in the military.

“He was the best dad in the world. He was close to all his kids,” Butler said. “He was one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known. He could make almost anything, could fix almost anything. He very much had an engineer’s mind.”

Family — his four children, seven grandkids and one great-grandson — was the priority for the man who also loved riding his motorcycle, telling a good joke and listening to country music.

Diagnosed in 2018, Butler saw the disease spread to his bones. He spent four years managing the cancer, with Butler moving back home to Pittsfield to help care for him.

She learned about the In Memory program, which has recognized more than 6,000 veterans since 1993, while networking with other caregivers and family members of Vietnam vets who wanted to honor a loved one.

VVMF will hold the 2023 In Memory ceremony on June 17 on the east knoll of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Names of this year’s 567 honorees will be read aloud, and Butler and her daughter, her oldest sister and family and an uncle will be in the nation’s capitol for the ceremony.

“For many Vietnam veterans, coming home from Vietnam was just the beginning of a whole new fight. Many never fully recovered, either physically or emotionally, from their experiences,” VVMF President and CEO Jim Knotts said in a press release. “As these veterans pass, it is our duty and solemn promise to welcome them home to the place that our nation has set aside to remember our Vietnam veterans.”

Butler hopes to see more people honor loved ones who served in Vietnam.

“The In Memory program is another way for citizens and loved ones to welcome home our veterans, acknowledging their service and sacrifice, as well as their loved ones’ service and sacrifices while caring for their veterans,” she said. “It’s one last way to say thank you, sharing our gratitude for something we will never be able to repay.”