Nov 14, 2014 3 min read

While Rik Pankiewicz was ferrying equipment between Thailand and its war-torn neighbor in the late 1960s, many of his peers back home were loudly protesting the Vietnam War and everything it stood for.

Pankiewicz, who spoke to Canon-McMillan juniors Friday, said he was glad he had the opportunity to serve his country, but he didn’t denounce the protests. Instead, he advised students to find their own voices and use them for good.

“This wasn’t a good place in my life. Nothing was good for us,” he said of the war. “But the message is this: you have the ability to make a change … Let your voices be heard.”

Pankiewicz, 68, of Monongahela, shared his memories of the Vietnam War in an English class taught by his daughter, Meg Pankiewicz. Throughout the week, students learned about Vietnam War protests, the women’s and civil rights movements, and the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, which upheld the Constitutional right of public school students to wear armbands in protest of the war.

After graduating from high school, Pankiewicz enlisted in the Air Force in 1966, but never thought he would be drafted into the war. But when he got the surprising news two years later, he decided to serve rather than evade the draft.

He was stationed in Thailand and served as a life support specialist who recovered and inspected aviation equipment left in Vietnam. Flying over the border was still a risky assignment, but he was never shot at or endangered.

A war zone is hardly the easiest place to make new friends, but Pankiewicz said he learned that Vietnamese citizens were good, honest people, and he befriended a local family.

When he returned from Vietnam, many of his friends were still protesting the ongoing conflict. He said he kept quiet because he felt torn, but now respects what the mass protests ultimately accomplished – an end to the war.

“It changed our political culture and our political life thereafter,” he said.

He characterized the 1960s as a time of uncertainty and rapid changes.

“In 1960, President John F. Kennedy was elected president of this country, and he came out with a very ambitious plan for our country, and we thought we were going to be in a golden age,” he said. “We all believed it, and we all wanted to be a part of it. At the end of the decade, our country was just about falling apart.”

However, he said the decade also was a time when the “power of voice” changed the course of history.

Meg Pankiewicz echoed those sentiments.

“I want you to really think, as a closure to this whole unit, about the power of your voice in regards to it could be a force of change,” she told students. “It could also be a force of destruction, and you’ve seen both.”

High school Principal David Helinski also was invited to speak about the legal aspects of the Supreme Court case.

“I was very happy that Ms. Pankiewicz asked me to come in to talk about student rights and responsibilities in the school setting,” Helinski said.

Pankiewicz spoke against the draft, but urged students with an interest in serving their country to follow their hearts.

“If you have a cause for your country, go with it, because you can,” he said. “You could enlist, you could join, you could serve your country. If you get the sense, if you get the feeling, you can do it. “