Clyde Brumaghim, 73, is very proud of growing up in Kona, and especially proud to be a Wildcat, graduating from Konawaena High School with the Class of 1969.
His service in Vietnam also gave him numerous medals and honors to be proud of, but all he really wants to do is make sure all the Konawaena grads who served in Vietnam are forever remembered.
Brumaghim is currently leading an effort to raise money from the community for an elegant monument that will stand at Konawaena High School to honor the Wildcats who served in the Vietnam War, which took place from 1954 to 1975.
More than 58,000 U.S. military personnel died in the conflict.
“We do this strictly from our hearts to honor the soldiers from the coffee land days,” Brumaghim said.
The monument is a stone marker emblazoned with the school’s mascot, symbols for all the service branches, and reads, “This monument signifies the dedication of the Vietnam veterans of Konawaena High School. They went with pride, honor, and courage. All gave some, some gave all. Hail Wildcats. Pride of Hawaii. E kulia i ka nu’u.”
“I’d like see everyone participate in making this dream come true for all the bruddahs from Hawaii, all my friends who died in that damn war,” said Brumaghim, who still gets choked up remembering that time. “This is just to acknowledge them and their lovely families who lost their loved ones. They can visit it, and feel it, remember them … and people can pass it with their families and say, ‘My dad was a veteran,’ and be proud.”
Brumaghim recalled his childhood, saying he and his brothers, like many Kona boys of the 1960s, “never had a summer,” spending every day and night working in coffee fields to help support their families.
“No one was doing what we were doing,” he said. “We were the only school in the U.S. that would go back to school in November. Everyone else went back in August, but we had to pick coffee in September, October and November.”
He recalled one particular day at Konawaena when William Kalua‘u Jr., known to Brumaghim simply as “Billy,” tapped him on the head and said their fathers were good friends. Kalua‘u was two years older than Brumaghim, and that head tap started a friendship that would see them through the war and life after, all the way to the establishment of this monument.
Brumaghim served as an airborne pathfinder sergeant and E-5 door gunner, and said he was amazed that every piece of the training he gained at Fort Benning in Georgia actually did need to be used in Vietnam when he was doing air traffic control and being part of combat assaults, sneak attacks and bringing men out of battles.
Brumaghim said he bumped into Kalua‘u in California after joining the Army, their first time seeing each other since high school. Kalua‘u’s simple advice was, “Stay out of Vietnam,” saying he’d survived being stabbed 13 times on his first deployment there.
As fate would have it, Brumaghim did find himself in the war-torn country, and recalled that on his 19th birthday the following January he ran into Kalua‘u again as they were both leaving for a mission. Brumaghim barely survived that day, and Kalua‘u was shot twice by an AK-47 several days later, which he luckily survived and was honorably sent back to Kona.
When Brumaghim also made it home safely, the men were bonded for life.
“This is mine and Billy’s dream, right here,” Brumaghim said of the monument. “He died a year and a half ago, and I swore to myself I’d never give up on this monument.”
Brumaghim also really wanted to make clear that the monument honors every single person who served in Vietnam, regardless of rank, branch or how and when the served.
“Everyone’s life was in danger in Vietnam, no matter what you did there. Not only combat soldiers died, guys on the base camp were killed, too,” Brumaghim said. “No one was any safer than anyone else, and I wasn’t braver than anyone else there.”
Aside from Kalua‘u and a handful friends, Brumaghim said he had no idea how many Vietnam veterans had come from Konawaena until he attended his class’s 50th reunion in August 2019. He took the microphone that night and said he wanted to acknowledge anyone who had served in Vietnam, asking them to please stand.
Due to the length and monumental number of troops in the war, the number of Konawaena High Vietnam veterans could cover over a dozen graduating classes. At the reunion, eight other veterans stood up at Brumaghim’s invitation, and that only covers the ones who happened to be in attendance that night.
“I myself was surprised. I didn’t know that many guys from my class went to Vietnam,” Brumaghim said. “We all kept humble about it all these years, so it was a surprise to all of us. I was beyond shocked.”
The Konawaena monument has been designed and commissioned, and the school has devoted a clear area at the entrance of the school where it will stand, Brumaghim said.
He hopes to raise $40,000 from community donations, which will cover the $25,000 monument, its transportation to the site, the excavation of the land to install it, and the addition of a fence to create a meaningful memorial space.
Any money left over from the donations will be given to the school or a foundation for Vietnam veterans, Brumaghim said.
Donations can be made via checks or money orders payable to “Wildcat Veterans Memorial Fund” (with the word “Gift” in the memo) can be mailed to Clyde Brumaghim at P.O. Box 377553 Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, HI 96737.
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
