“It’s a bit of an ambiguous thing.”

With that statement, Professor Timothy Lomperis, Chairperson of Political Science Department and Vietnam veteran, explained his feelings about Veteran’s Day, celebrated on Nov. 11.

In October of 1969, Lomperis’ young-adult life began a course that would affect him for the rest of his life-he was drafted into the Vietnam War.

Born and raised as a “missionary kid,” Lomperis spent his first 18 years in India. After obtaining his degree, he taught at Lousiana State University, Duke University and West Point before coming to Saint Louis University in 1996.

“I really enjoy seeing the process of adulthood,” Lomperis said. “I love to see those raw, confused freshmen all eager to learn and then see those faces years later as self-confident seniors.”

“I believe you grow at least half your self in the four years of college,” Lomperis added.

As a Political Science major, Lomperis knew Nixon had a secret plan to end the war, so he attempted to stall and stay in the United States as long as possible. He volunteered for every additional training possible, including officer training, learning Vietnamese and attending spy school.

Lomperis described these two years of stalling as “pretending I wasn’t in the army.”

Finally, a colonel discovered the technique and sent him to Vietnam in March 1972. Ironically, one week later Nixon gave a speech indicating that only volunteers would be sent to Vietnam. “My plan almost worked,” Lomperis said.

In Vietnam, Lomperis utilized his spy training as a liaison to the Vietnamese. “My job was to foster the belief that we were still supporting them.”

“I couldn’t continue to live the lie. They [the Vietnamese] became important to me,” he explained. After two years in Vietnam, he returned home, but his experiences would live with him.

“I had real issues with the army,” Lomperis said, explaining that he believed it was a just cause that we had abandoned.

Teaching at West Point helped bring about a “spiritual resolution” within him. “It was a very different army from the army I knew. These were my contemporaries who had served,” Lomperis said.

Lomperis reflects highly on his time in the military. “I became a man. I took responsibility for my own life. There comes a point where people realize they are in control.”

“I think of my military service as absolutely vital to who I am,” he said.

Lomperis believes strongly in military service. He explains that people can go to schools where “everything is `pure idea,’ but they need hard exposure to life. Being in a war confronts you with a dilemma of humanity-to rationalize taking life for political ends.”

Lomperis has published three books on the Vietnam War that have received much acclaim and criticism for his support of the war.

Veteran’s Day evokes varied reactions from him. “It used to be a party stopper to tell anyone you were in Vietnam.”

“With my publications, optimistically, I was the stupid schmuck who had to convey how decisive it was. It truly was a civil war.”

On past Veteran’s Days, Lomperis has gone on a picnic with his family. Today with his kids in college, he plans to go out to dinner with his wife.