From battlefield to capital: Former FSU President reflects on his days in the Vietnam War

The moment John Thrasher arrived in Vietnam, he started counting down the days until he could leave.

"I was there exactly to the day, 365 days," Thrasher said. "It was a long year."

It was 55 years ago when the retired FSU president, lawyer, lobbyist and former top state lawmaker fought in the divisive war that cost thousands of Americans their lives, but he still remembers most of it.

The U.S. was engulfed in turmoil during the Vietnam War, the 80-year-old said, and veterans weren't greeted with parades or much praise, if any, as they returned.

But on Saturday, Thrasher and 69 other Vietnam War veterans will be honored and get to hear two words that are long overdue: "Welcome home."

Honor Flight Tallahassee — a local branch of the nationwide organization that's dedicated to honoring war veterans — is making its 10th annual trip to Washington, D.C., with a total of 76 veterans who served in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The organization's mission: To bring every veteran to Washington, free of charge, who is capable of going and has never seen the monuments that were built as a tribute to them and the numerous soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty many years ago.

"I'm looking forward to it, I really am," Thrasher said. "Frankly, I think in America generally we don't do enough to honor veterans. And I'm not talking about me now, I don't need that, but there are a lot of these folks that do, and they deserve it."

Although Thrasher has made numerous trips to the nation's capital during his time as a lawmaker, he's never been on an Honor Flight. He applied like the rest of the veterans to be able to experience the monuments with fellow vets.

He said all the monuments are deeply emotionally powerful places. Today, there's a lot of talk about being divided, he said, but the lack of unity seems to dissolve in the presence of these landmarks.

"I think places like that, there are no Republicans or Democrats or other ethnicities or whatever — everybody is an American," he said. "And I think we need more of that."

The trip is a special thing to be part of, and it's even more special to get to share the experience with a loved one, he said. Each veteran has a "guardian" that pairs up with them for the day to help them throughout the trip — Thrasher chose his son, also named John, who was born while he was in Vietnam.

"I think this will be a kind of special bonding trip for him and I, so I'm looking forward to that opportunity," he said.

Diploma to deployment

Fresh out of college, Thrasher, who was 21 at the time, moved to Jacksonville to start his career after graduating from Florida State University. Three months later, he got his Army draft papers, putting his life plans on pause for the next four years.

After his application for a direct commission into the U.S. Army Medical Service Corp in May 1966 was approved, he trained in San Antonio, Texas, and then spent three years abroad in Germany before being shipped to the front lines in Vietnam for his final year of service.

Thrasher was stationed in the central highlands of Pleiku where U.S. troops were defending the country from the North Vietnamese who were infiltrating through the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. He worked in the Fourth Infantry Division as a division surgeon's assistant where it was his job to manage and deploy all the medical units that supported the troops.

He was involved in the U.S. Army Medical Command Vietnam unit, working directly for the chief of staff who worked for the commanding general.

While it was an honor to serve in a higher role with a lot of responsibility, war was still war, and being overseas was a struggle.

"When I went over there, I weighed probably 180 or 190 pounds, and I came back and I weighed 160 pounds," he said. "You just don't eat — I mean there are a lot people worse off than me, but the conditions were not good."

Vietnam was unbearably hot and had volatile monsoon seasons. And not being able to easily communicate with his wife and kids he left behind added to the miserable conditions.

He didn't even know his son as born until two weeks later.

You have to surround yourself with your friends while you're there just to get through, and he said he was fortunate to have found really good friends that made the losses and horrors of war bearable.

"You take every day as a new day," he said. "It's just kind of like life goes on."

'Culture shock'

Coming home was a culture shock.

Initially Thrasher had some regrets about coming home while the war was still waging on, but he acclimated and put the war behind him by immediately throwing himself into his family and his next career.

Four days after safely landing in Seattle, Washington, Thrasher started law school at FSU, which he applied to while he still serving in Vietnam.

After finishing law school, he was elected a state representative, serving as the 90th speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, then became the Republican Party of Florida chair, a state senator, and later FSU's 15th president from 2014 to 2021.

Even now in retirement, he keeps busy by teaching a few classes at FSU's law school and staying involved at The Southern Group, a lobbying firm he helped start.

Thrasher said he had a lot of great experience as a captain in the Army that prepared him for the things he did the rest of his life, and on Saturday he'll get to be surrounded by other veterans whose lives were just as widely impacted by their time in the military as his.

"That's what it's really about, getting to talk to other veterans and exchange stories and memories," he said.

His doctor, who has attended every trip, has been urging him for years to apply to Honor Flight, and Thrasher decided this would be a good year to go while he still could.

"I'm really thankful for the people who helped put it on," he said. "The opportunity to do this is just amazing."

Related: A tale of two Koreas: Ahead of Honor Flight, vets share war stories on, off the front lines

Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Former FSU President John Thrasher joins upcoming Honor Flight trip