[00:00:00] (HOST) Bruce Springsteen’s song The Wall reads like an ode to someone named Billy, who went from fronting a rock n roll band to being killed in action in Vietnam. In reality, the character of Billy was informed by two musicians the boss knew personally. One is Bart Haynes, the drummer for Springsteen’s very first band, The Castiles. The other is Walter Cichon, the front man for a band called The Motifs, who in the mid to late 60s were taking the Jersey shore by storm. When Springsteen introduces the Wall in concert, he often pays tribute to both men. But he especially has a lot to say about Walter. Here’s the Boss in Charlotte in 2014.

[00:00:41] (SPRINGSTEEN) Every young musician, particularly in the mid-60s we were lucky in that in our neighborhood there were some excellent musicians and there were two brothers particularly that meant a great, great deal to me. They were called the Shoshone Brothers, and they had a group called The Motifs. And Ray Cichon was a was a particularly fluid guitarist, and he would take the time to tutor me. And he had a he had a another brother that was called Walter. And Walter was this, uh, I think the first person I ever saw that felt like a real rock star to me. You know, you were afraid to talk to him, and he was kind of scary. He had long, curly hair, really long and, uh, he had a tremendous animal presence. And and it was a great, great front man. And, um, I wrote this song really thinking about Walter and thinking about Bart Haines, who was the drummer in my first band, the Castiles. And both Bart and Walter were, uh, were killed in action in Vietnam when they were very, very young. And it was a tremendous, tremendous loss, tremendous loss to our neighborhood, to our town. And, uh, but this basically is, I guess, is a short prayer for my country. So this is called The Wall.

[00:02:29] (HOST) In this episode, we bring you a portrait of Walter Cichon, whose voice was silenced in Vietnam when he was just 21 years old. Walter’s spirit endures through those who knew him, through his two sons, and, to a surprising degree, through the storytelling of Bruce Springsteen. Stick around. From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Founders of The wall. This is echoes of the Vietnam War. I’m your host, Michael Croan, bringing you stories of service, sacrifice, and healing from people who still feel the impact of that conflict. More than 50 years later. Episode 75 frontman. Just a quick heads up, this episode does contain a few instances of coarse language.

[00:03:37] (CAROLINE) My name is Caroline Schaefer, I’m a podcast producer and I’m based in Austin, Texas.

[00:03:43] (HOST) Caroline put together this portrait of Walter and joined me via zoom to talk about the project.

[00:03:48] (CAROLINE) I’ve been producing podcasts and videos and short films for around 4 or 5 years now. Ever since I was little, I’ve been kind of a storyteller.

[00:03:58] (HOST) What was it about this story that you felt like? Oh, I can really sink my teeth into that.

[00:04:04] (CAROLINE) My dad loved music, and I just remember growing up with him in car rides. He would like we’d be playing a Beatles song like Revolution or something, and he would be telling me the history behind the song and how like it came about during times of turmoil and all the times of war and political strife. And so he was a music fan and a history buff, and he kind of instilled that in me growing up. And also kind of the nature of Walter’s story intrigued me to the fact that it was this band that really had a great chance at being something amazing, but it never fully happened for them.

[00:04:40] (HOST) What was the biggest surprise for you as you dug in to Walter’s story?

[00:04:46] (CAROLINE) I don’t know if it counts necessarily as a surprise, but I think the nicest thing that happened during all the interviews was that I think every single person I talked to had the same stories, or at least the same recollections of Walter. And I think, especially when you’re talking about a story that happened over 50 years ago. I expected a little bit of kind of discrepancy between the memories and there was none. And so that just kind of spoke to me as what people remember and kind of the type of person Walter was, was so vibrant that over time, it still remains exactly the same, and it’s consistent.

[00:05:23] (HOST) Yeah. I mean, when you’re when everybody’s memories are so consistent and so vivid 50 years later, that’s kind of the that’s the definition of indelible.

[00:05:32] (CAROLINE) Mhm. Exactly.

[00:05:34] (HOST) Do you have any thoughts on what you hope listeners will think or do after they’ve heard Walter’s story?

[00:05:42] (CAROLINE) I’ve listened to a few of the Motif songs right now. Um, Molly is on YouTube and I think the other one is, um, If I Gave You Love is on YouTube. I have them playing in the episode, kind of in the background of a few points, but I hope people go and listen to them. But I also hope people take this episode as kind of incentive to seek out other stories like Walter’s and seek out other, maybe unsung heroes, and maybe locally. Like you never know who from your hometown has a story similar to this.

[00:06:15] (HOST) Well, Caroline, I think you just did a really a terrific job. And thank you.

[00:06:20] (CAROLINE) Well, thank you for letting me. War knows no bounds when it comes to conscripting talent. Icons like Jimmy Stewart and Mel Brooks found themselves on the frontlines during World War II, while Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash answered the call during Korea and when the tumult of the Vietnam War erupted, young men from all walks of life, including many budding artists, enlisted upon returning home, some creatives used their art as a form of therapy to deal with the combat loss and trauma they experienced. Some even drew inspiration from their service to create new art that reflected the post-war struggles they were now facing. Many of these people may not be household names, but their journeys and their contributions no doubt resonated with their own circle of family, friends and community. Unfortunately, not every war story concludes with a return home.

[00:07:22] (UNKNOWN VOICE 1) I knew inside of me he wasn’t coming back.

[00:07:27] (CAROLINE) Walter Cichon, a young soldier from Powell, New Jersey, had dreams of stardom alongside his band, The Motifs. His name may not be familiar to you, but it could have been if one day and one bullet had just gone in a different direction.

[00:07:48] (THE MOTIFS) If I gave you love. If I gave you love, would you please come home?

[00:07:56] (CAROLINE) Walters roots ran deep on the Jersey shore amidst a burgeoning music scene that pulsated with life. Asbury Park, with its array of concert venues, open air bandstands and bustling boardwalk stages, served as the epicenter of this musical renaissance. Here, a unique sound emerged, dubbed the Jersey Shore Sound. It was a blend of R&B, rock and soul, and it was a sonic tapestry that would later inspire none other than the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. Like any great origin story, it started with a group of friends and a garage band.

[00:08:28] (LEWANDOWSKI) But it all started in high school. You know, we’re just a bunch of kids, and I had a reputation as a drummer. And my friend said, hey, listen, I started a part of a couple of guys here were playing this new kind of music. It’s the fact that this was starting the start of the British Invasion at that point. And I was just kind of entering into that whole concept and he said, hey, would you like to play with us? I said, well, yeah, I’m pretty much jazz, I don’t know. I don’t know much about rock. Playing rock music. Well, to make a long story short, I got involved.

[00:09:02] (HOST) That’s John Lewandowski, one of the original members of The Motifs. Hailing from western Monmouth County, The Motifs epitomized the bad boys of the local music scene. They had a new sort of sound to them. It wasn’t like anything else popular on the shore at the time, but somehow it was working.

[00:09:20] (JOHN) It fit. Truly fit. And then along came a fellow named Norman Seldin. He got wind of us and he took us under his wing. And then he started to actually produce us in the local area in the old Jersey shore area. And so we started to really come into our own in the Jersey shore area with the kind of niche, I guess you would call it that just seemed to fit.

[00:09:51] (HOST) Norman Seldon was around 15 years old when he first heard about this new band, The Motifs. The first time he heard them play, he realized he’d found something with a potential to be huge.

[00:10:03] (NORMAN) I called up and they said, can we could we please play for you? I auditioned everybody at my parents house. I was, you know, I was a teenager and they came in, and I. I’ll never forget that. It was something different. And, you know, the English movement was coming in. The Motown movement was still on the edge, but it was coming in heavy. And I said, you know what? Maybe, maybe I just make a change.

[00:10:23] (CAROLINE) The Motifs had an edge to them. And as John Lewandowski recalls, a secret weapon.

[00:10:29] (JOHN) And the invasion hasn’t really hadn’t really hit. And so we would start playing our kind of music with that look. And I was the blond beach boy look, so I fit into the whole thing on the Jersey shore. Yeah. So yeah. So we became popular really quickly because people would say, who are these guys? What is this? What’s this guy up here with his tambourine? He’s tapping on his tambourine all the time. And he had this scraggly look, and he’s got these black light boots and skintight black pants, you know?

[00:11:01] (CAROLINE) And the hook was their frontman, who, according to Norman Seldon, had his own way of doing things.

[00:11:09] (NORMAN) When he played a cowbell, it was like the whole place rang out. He didn’t just play it. He mashed it and he made sure he mashed it. He had those primary things when he played them. Tambourine. The sweat broke out in him like somebody working out for three hours. Muscular guy. And that stone face that just could look right at an audience of 50 or 500 and it didn’t faze him a bit. He’s going to do what he’s going to do.

[00:11:31] (CAROLINE) At the helm of it all stood Walter Cichon, the lead singer from Howell with his long, dark hair, tight black pants and undeniable charisma. On stage, Walter embodied the essence of rock stardom. He was lightning in a bottle.

[00:11:45] (NORMAN) And, uh, and there was a band. But the real force in the whole band was Walter. He, you know, he was a 100%, go ahead. Never a negative word out of him, he listened, and he’s smart. And I could read it right away that. Forget the muscles and the hair and everything else. He was he was he was geared in.

[00:12:07] (CAROLINE) Walter had something special. He was talented, but it was more than just skill. It was presence. And that’s something you can’t learn. He knew how to be on stage. And as said best, by his bandmate John and manager Norman, he knew exactly who he was when he performed.

[00:12:24] (JOHN) Walter was a mixture of Eric Burdon from The Animals, maybe, and Jim Morrison of The Doors and Mick Jagger. He had this long, scraggly hair and he was he was kind of he just had to look a front man kind of look that fit, in fact. Mainly what was coming over from England. Well, this was all new at the time. And I mean, this was back in maybe 62, 63. He was kind of the, the visual sensation. He really was. People would look at him and they’d say, what is this?

[00:13:00] (NORMAN) I felt that they had something different. Um, Walter had a combination of two people that at their early stages in their life. Eric Burdon from the Animals and Mick Jagger from the Stones. He had that. He had that magnetism on stage with what he did sell the song. That was him to sell it. You didn’t have to tell him. Sell the song. He knew how to sell it. That was built in him.

[00:13:23] (CAROLINE) And while John and Norman both remember Walter on stage, they also remember Walter at home. He was quiet, soft spoken, and charismatic. He was a printer’s apprentice and worked hard to support his young family. He was young, incredibly intelligent and ambitious, and he believed the future was bright for The Motifs.

[00:13:42] (JOHN) The man he loved to read and he had an incredible vocabulary. And he and I used to. We have contests, and we’d go into the dictionary and come up with words and ask each other if we knew those words and that kind of a thing. And but the man had he had a lot between his ears. There was no question about it.

[00:13:59] (NORMAN) Truthfully, I don’t know any parent that wouldn’t want a son like him. I don’t know one, I really don’t. He was he was the perfect silent son that if he had faults, God, I never I never saw him because he was honest. He was right up front. He wasn’t loud. He wasn’t outspoken. He could talk. And when he got done talking, you got the message.

[00:14:29] (CAROLINE) By all accounts, Walter had two personas, one dedicated to his family, the other to his band, and the band worked with Walter as the front man, and Norman booking them regularly at the hottest venues in the tri state area. The Motifs were gaining traction from spots on local radio shows to battle of the bands competitions. Teens from all over the shore were lining up to hear the band and watch Walter perform. They were quickly becoming local celebrities, gaining fans as well as a few enemies. Here’s drummer John Lewandowski.

[00:15:02] (JOHN) I remember once we were playing at the Westland Casino in Long Branch, New Jersey, and that was that was kind of the mecca then at on the shore where everybody came to play one night we were playing and we were doing, I guess it was, well, I don’t know whose songs it was, but it was again, it was right in the beginning. Maybe this was even 60, 1964 by that time. But we were playing and these, these ruffians would come up to the stage and they started rolling it. And Walter had it. He, we he threw down the tambourine and he looked at them and he said, you want me? And then he got off the stage and he headed for the bathroom. I mean, this this guy was ballsy, if I may use the term. He gets off the stage by himself, and he walked in the bathroom, but nobody followed him. They were all, you know, they were all noise. And we went back on stage and played out the night and it was great. But things like that, you kinda don’t forget.

[00:15:58] (MURRAY) Murray Bauer, one of the original members of the motifs, recalled a time when Walter really turned a show around for the band in an unconventional way. Murray could not be interviewed for this episode, but Walter’s youngest son, David, was able to recount what Murray once told him.

[00:16:13] (DAVID) When we were talking about my father and the chip on his shoulder, he also had one of those suede jackets that had the fringe. He had that so he had this swagger, you know. I think it was the, the Middletown Ice Rink. It was a Battle of the Bands in Middletown. And the band that they were playing against was from the high school in Middletown. And my father’s band was from Freehold. They’re not that far away, but far enough. And so the band from Middletown went first and the kids went crazy dancing, enjoying themselves. Then the Motifs take the stage and they take one look and they don’t know what to do with this band. And so they’re kind of milling about. They’re not dancing. They’re not singing along. They’re not clapping. And my father, where he says, my father stops the music, stops the band. Everyone looks up the stage. He grabs the mic, looks and goes, fuck you. You love them. Fuck you and you hate us fuck you. We’re going to play anyway. And he starts it back up again. After that, he owned the audience. Murray said he had them eating out of his hand after that.

[00:17:42] (JOHN) And then came the war.

[00:17:51] (CAROLINE) Amidst the idyllic backdrop of the sunny beaches of the Jersey shore, it was hard to believe that a world away a war raged on. But as the summer of 67 unfolded, the harsh realities of war and the looming specter of the Draft became impossible to ignore. For many Americans, John Lewandowski among them.

[00:18:09] (JOHN) We didn’t know what to make of the whole thing. We just didn’t. We were a bunch of largely politically ignorant young kids. And I remember in college, you know, we thought we knew everything. And you had both sides, the pros and the cons. And Walter was, he was drafted.

[00:18:28] (CAROLINE) Norman Seldin, the band’s manager, also recalls the pressure of the Draft and what that could mean for the band.

[00:18:35] (NORMAN) It was what you’re supposed to do. You know, if you if you got rejected, fine. If you had to go, you had to go. And that was, you know, you got your number. And basically it was kind of a crapshoot. Then again, remember the draft was always there. It’s not that it came out of nowhere.

[00:18:55] (CAROLINE) By fall of that year, Walter Cichon was drafted. Walter, the rock ‘n roll rebel who had captivated audiences along the Jersey shore stages, was trading in his long hair and tight jeans for a buzz cut and uniform. Like many of his peers at the time, Walter was reluctant to join the fight. The band was thriving, but the draft left him with no other option. Walter joined Company A of the 3rd Battalion of the Army’s 8th Infantry. He was 21 years old. Towards the end of 1967, he left for Vietnam, leaving behind his wife Carol Lee, two very young sons and a band poised on the cusp of their breakthrough. Here’s Norman Seldin.

[00:19:36] (NORMAN) That’s scary. There’s no way. It doesn’t scare you, but Walter was not scared of anything. Nothing. Nothing fazed him. If he had to do something, he did it. They didn’t complain about it or procrastinate about it. It is what it is. And that’s what made him a good leader in today’s world right now, they would love to have a hundred to him because he could follow, and he could lead if he ever got promoted to the point of leading. There’s no doubt he could lead. I don’t care where he was. I don’t care if it was music, whether it was military, he could lead.

[00:20:05] (CAROLINE) True to form, Walter approached military service with the same unwavering commitment he applied to everything else in life. He was slightly older than some of his fellow recruits, but he was driven by a desire to aid and uplift others, to serve as a beacon of inspiration amidst the uncertainty that lay ahead. Simply put, Walter gave his all. As Norman said, he was a natural born leader, and he quickly rose to the rank of staff sergeant. On March 30th, 1968, in the Kontum region of then-South, Vietnam, Walter’s unit was engaged in battle. Witnesses say they saw Walter during the fight. He emerged carrying a hand grenade and was shot in the head. An army buddy held Walter in his arms until the unit was forced to retreat under heavy enemy fire. Walter and ten others were left behind. His body was never recovered and he was declared missing in action.

[00:21:03] (JOHN) And word has it that he stood up in a trench and took a bullet in the head, and that was the end of that.

[00:21:11] (NORMAN) Was I shocked when I found it? No, no, I never I never really expected to see him again. He’s the kind of guy would run out in the middle of machine gun fire from the enemy and try to drag somebody across the middle, or he’d be the one to throw a grenade. He would be the one that he would be the first one to take the battle the same way you did on stage. Whatever came, he did. And I just knew inside that he wasn’t coming back. And that one hurt. That hurt a whole lot.

[00:21:41] (CAROLINE) Walter received two Purple Hearts, one with an oak leaf cluster. The Army paid for his funeral, and a white memorial marker was placed at Evergreen Cemetery in Farmingdale, New Jersey.

[00:21:55] (HOST) Nearly 50 years after the fall of Saigon, there are more than 1500 service members still missing and unaccounted for. Walter is one of them. After a short break, Brian and David Cichon meet Bruce Springsteen and learned that their father’s impact on him has not been exaggerated. Stick around.

[00:26:01] And now back to Caroline Schaefer’s portrait of Walter Cichon.

[00:26:06] I want to share with you a remembrance I found for Walter from Murray Bauer, one of his former bandmates and close friends. This remembrance was written on the Wall of Faces, a place on the VVMF website where people can honor and remember every person whose name is inscribed on The Wall. Murray writes, I will never forget the friendship and the love we had for each other, the good times and the future. We talked about and looked forward to. The Motifs, as we were called, is now both a beautiful and hurtful memory, and I could not forget, even if I wanted to. It’s all become a part of me that I can’t escape. I recently picked up my Fender guitar, which sat in my home for all these years and just held it, strumming a few chords. I always wonder where and how far we could have gone doing something we truly loved, making our music come alive. I can only guess. But I will never know. I love you, Walt, and I always will. Death doesn’t discriminate. Each soldier lost to the casualties of war had a family, friends, hopes and dreams. No one is more or less deserving of an untimely end in the eyes of death and the sacrifices each individual made should never be forgotten. But the deployment of artists and creatives to war zones not only represents a loss of individual talent and potential, but it also represents a loss to the cultural fabric of our society. These people, driven by their unique perspectives and talents, often serve as a voice for the voiceless. They have the uncanny ability to express thoughts and feelings many of us find indescribable, and they can evoke emotion from us in unexpected ways. When these voices are snubbed out, what stories are left untold? What songs are left unsung?

[00:27:59] (DAVID) You know, my brother and I were actually raised separately. He was raised by my grandparents and I was raised by my mom. And so my brother didn’t get to see, occasionally he did, but he didn’t get to see firsthand the emotional damage caused to my mother and how she suffered with it through her life. The impact it had on her, which then had impact on, you know, on me, you know, that’s I think that was the, the biggest thing. And I think you know, she passed what was it, 19 years ago? It’s coming on 19 years. And her last boyfriend, Don, you know I’d actually I’d said to him afterwards. And what’s interesting is when she passed Vinnie Roslin from The Motifs and also from one of Springsteen’s band, Steel Mill he was there when she passed. That’s how close he remained to the family. But when she did, you know, I’d asked. I’d asked Don afterwards. Like, how did you put up with her? How did how did you deal with the emotional scars? Because I always kept one thing in mind. She never stopped loving your father. And I didn’t try. I didn’t try to match up to that. So that’s, I think, more than anything, the impact my father had on me was through my mom. And you know what I experienced growing up and even later through life.

[00:29:37] (CAROLINE) That was David Cichon, Walter’s youngest son. I had the chance to talk with him and his brother Brian about their dad just a few days ago. They were both too young to remember much about their dad. By the time he passed, but they were often told about their rock star dad and all that could have been.

[00:29:53] (DAVID) I remember the when we grew up, um, you know, my grandfather, my mother, they’d constantly tell us that, um, you know, had he not gone to Vietnam, had he not been killed, that he would have been the way they’d phrased it, he’d be where Springsteen is now is the way they’d phrase it. And, you know, I don’t know about my brother, but I always took that with a grain of salt. I never really thought that it might have been the truth. I was like, how big of a rock star could this guy have been?

[00:30:24 (BRIAN)] I believe I believed it so much so that he did. I didn’t, but, well, yeah, I mean, we both had a passion for music, and, you know, whether I wanted to believe it or truly believed it, you know, I did. Um, and I think you know how that impacted me. I grew up no comments from you, David. I grew up with a chip on my shoulder because like. But it’s how David framed it out, right? Like, he could, you know, he would have been a rock star. He could have been something. And, you know, the Vietnam War, you know, it was a political war, right? It had no purpose.

[00:31:03] (DAVID) Um, no. They didn’t even have the decency to call it a war.

[00:31:08] (CAROLINE) The loss of Walter hit the family hard. His absence still weighs heavily, but so does the impact of his life. Yet it wasn’t only those close to him who kept Walter’s memory alive. As John Lewandowski remembers.

[00:31:21] (JOHN) Walter was pretty much, and he still is one of Bruce Springsteen’s icons. He thinks he thought the most of Walter and the whole band in fact.

[00:31:36] (CAROLINE) Bruce was just starting his first band when the motifs were hitting their stride. He would attend their shows and marvel at their success, and even seek guitar advice from Walter’s brother, Raymond. The Boss was a devoted fan.

[00:31:48] (JOHN) We would practice in Freehold, New Jersey, and it was named Tex. He had a little old house. This. This was down home America. We practiced in Tex’s small dining room. We’d set up the amps and so forth and the drums, and nine times out of ten that we’d be there is this young, little skinny kid from the other side of Freehold would show up and his name was Bruce Springsteen, and he’d come in and he just he just loved to watch us practice and listen and groove and all that. We just had such a good time with him and he with us. There’s no question about that. Walter was his man, but he iked and respected all of us.

[00:32:37] (CAROLINE) And Bruce’s admiration of Walter extended way beyond his early days as a musician during a concert in the early 2000. Bruce Springsteen introduced a song he was about to sing called The Wall. In his introduction, he talks about growing up in the mid-sixties and becoming the musician he is today. He talked about how he was inspired by a local band, The Motifs. He described Walter as the first person I ever saw who looked like a rock star to me, and goes on to tell the story of losing Walter too soon. The Wall is a song of remembrance about losing a friend during war, and Bruce dedicates the song to Walter. It wasn’t long after this performance that word got back to David Cichon, that Bruce Springsteen was singing a song about his father on stage.

[00:33:20] (DAVID) Did start with someone reaching out to me and saying, hey, you know that Bruce Springsteen is playing a song live about your father and mentioning him on stage. And I looked it up and started listening to two different times he had done this. And then I sent it to my brother.

[00:33:39] (BRIAN) To David’s point, like we never really knew, you know, I believed, but we didn’t know. And I was like, wow, okay so those stories must be true. Right. So my one of my clients was ASCAP, which was Bruce’s music licensing company. Um, so I reached out to my clients, said, hey, can you put me in touch with Bruce’s relationship manager? And so, you know, a couple weeks later and I got a call back from Jon Landau and he’s like, you know just calling because Bruce would like to meet you and like, okay, so, you know, we arranged to go to a concert in Orlando. My brother flew down. I drove over and his manager, Wayne, at the time, you know, coordinated us to get to meet him backstage.

[00:34:27] (DAVID) And my brother was funny. He’s like, how? How are we going to find him? Like, they’re probably looking for us, and they were looking for us. But I warned him. I said, you know, the second that door opens and Bruce takes one look at you because my brother looks exactly at the time, looked exactly like my father. Now he’s nearly 40 years older than my father ever was. So. But at the time, he looked exactly like him. And I said, I. That’s probably going to shock them.

[00:34:57] (CAROLINE) David and Bryan had grown up hearing stories of their dad’s musical prowess and rumors of how a young Bruce Springsteen was his biggest fan, but seeing the reality of it all was something else altogether.

[00:35:08] (BRIAN) He opened the door and, you know, we didn’t know what to expect. But he opens the door and just goes, whoa, whoa. He’s like, come here. He’s like, I got to give you a hug. And I’m like, thinking to myself, like, this should be the other way around. But he gets up, hugs me and goes. He goes, I’m standing here right now. I just feel like I’m looking right at your dad. He goes, you look just like him. And I just feel like he’s right here with me.

[00:35:32] (DAVID) And I think the word he used was dead ringer.

[00:35:35] (BRIAN) But, you know, it was impactful because he called. And I don’t think he shared this in the liner notes or any of the stories he’s told. But, you know, what he shared with us was like, he said, you’re your dad was the best performer I ever saw. He was basically my mentor. And what he said was verbatim was, you know, everything I learned about performing on stage, I learned from your father. And, you know, growing up, you know, we’d gone to Bruce Springsteen concerts at the Meadowlands and, you know, to this day one of the best performers. And to hear that, you know, everything he learned about performing, you know, he learned from our father was like, you know, you don’t know how to process that. It’s like, whoa.

[00:36:20] (DAVID) We get back to his truck, both just sitting there like he said, trying to process. And I’m pretty certain I was the first one who spoke and said So apparently mommy and granddad were understating it a little bit.

[00:36:38] (BRIAN) So? So we asked. We asked him like, look like, can you, you know, can we ask you for one thing? He’s like, sure, whatever. Whatever it is, is like, can we can you just get our dad’s story out there? You know, because you know about the Motifs, obviously. You know, we knew about The Motifs. We knew about that. But in general, like no one else knew. Right? And so it’s like, you know, let’s put it let’s let the world know, like kind of what that impact of that war was. And, you know, kind of, you know, one, as my brother calls it, a sung hero. Right. Versus an unsung hero. But was it like two and a half years later, he put out an album? You know, it was a compilation of different songs that he’d had from the past. And boy, you know, he recorded The Wall, but he told the story liner notes because albums by that time really didn’t have liner notes. And then he started telling the story in concert.

[00:37:28] (DAVID) But I really think what one of the most poignant moments was when we saw him again. He invited us to see his Broadway production, and so many people had told us that, you know, he talks about your dad on Broadway.

[00:37:48] (CAROLINE) Bruce had begun a concert residency on Broadway in October 2017. During the show, Springsteen performed solo, playing guitar and piano while sharing stories and significant moments from his life, as detailed in his autobiography, Born to Run.

[00:38:03] (DAVID) Then we get invited to it and they asked us to pick a date. And I’m thinking my brother decides he chooses the date. It was my father’s birthday and I’m like, duh, why didn’t I think of that? So we go on his birthday and we bring our significant others with us, and they get to meet my father. He gets to the point where he’s talking about my father, and he goes through the whole thing, and then he. Now, we did not tell him or his management why we picked the date we picked. But Springsteen’s goes, today would have been his birthday, and we have his sons in the audience. And I was floored that he knew our father’s birthday and had figured it out that that was something else. That was really something else.

[00:38:56] (BRIAN) To David’s point, you know, the moment in the theater at the end, he’s just recapping, you know, all the people that he’s lost his mom and obviously our dad. Just like everyone gets goosebumps and everyone’s silent and it’s like this, this, this, this special moment. And obviously it is for us when we hear it, but to hear it from other people. But, you know, sitting there when he said, you know, you know, and you know, today would have been his birthday, I mean, you could just feel kind of people, you know, they shared that loss for that moment.

[00:39:25] (DAVID) But it’s also the way he phrased it and the company that he put our father in at the end of that show is I think that’s the poignant moment I was really talking about. Yes, him remembering the birthday was one thing, but he was talking about that he gets to do this show that he loves to do this show, and he gets to do the show because he gets to talk with his mother again. He gets to remember his father. He gets to play with Danny and the big man again, Danny Federici. And he gets to see my father perform again. Putting our father in that company. That’s when it hit me what he meant to him.

[00:40:15] (BRIAN) It’s true. Like that, you know. From losing him at two. From having that chip on my shoulder. From having that sense of loss and that anger about what could have been. You know, it came full circle. And, you know, I can’t call it full closure, right. But it was closure to some degree because I was able to say, like, you know, like it’s not just telling the story. Like our dad is still alive, right? He is alive again. And he’s living through Bruce’s stories, like any great storyteller brings these characters to life. But it’s not character. I mean, it was our dad. I said, just tell Bruce that, you know, it means the world that, you know, he he’s still alive. It’s not just a memory. I mean, he paints a great picture when he tells a story, and he brings them back to life every time he does.

[00:40:58] (THE MOTIFS) I wrote a poem, Molly, my baby and I fell out. And what do you think it was all about? Well, she liked coffee, and I like tea, and that’s the reason we couldn’t agree.

[00:41:36] Walter’s life and the dreams he held for his future with his band may have been tragically cut short that day in 1968, in southern Vietnam, but a legacy cannot be extinguished. His spirit, his zest for life, his compassionate and enigmatic personality, and his distinctive performance style endure, cherished by those who were fortunate enough to know him. They persist, woven into the fabric of the stories shared about him, ensuring that Walter’s memory remains vibrant, alive, and a testament to the enduring impact of a life lived with passion and purpose. Norman Seldin, the band’s manager, remembers Walter’s impact on the stage with The Motifs.

[00:42:16] (NORMAN) Because of Walter they’re around was an energy that nobody had. It’s still a mystery to people. Trust me, anybody that saw him would still say, I remember that guy. What do you remember? He was just. He was just in it. In it to win it, you know, all the time. I hope everybody appreciates what he was, appreciates what the band was behind him, how they followed him with 100% of what they had to give. Walter was a very special individual person. Uh, he was a family guy. He was, he was in love with his family. He was in love with everything. And on top, on bottom line, he loved this country. Period. I mean, there was never a doubt in his mind.

[00:42:58] (CAROLINE) And John Lewandowski remembers, first and foremost his friend.

[00:43:04] (JOHN) And we used to talk about things that, well, kind of the universe and the creation and so forth. And so there was that kind of an intrinsic connection between us that was that I look back on very favorably and, and wish I still had. And you look back over your shoulder and you tend to look back more than you think you would look back. And in the past just becomes more alive and precious and things you tend to remember the good and dispel with the bad. And that was good stuff. Motifs, Bruce Springsteen, the whole thing I it was just great. I’m thankful to God that I had the ability to have done that.

[00:43:59] (CAROLINE) Walter’s story is not unique. Tragically, there have been many soldiers like him throughout countless wars whose full potential was never realized. But through stories like his, we’re compelled to confront the broader implications of war and the sacrifices made during it. Walter’s life shows us the profound cost of conflict, not just in terms of individual loss, but also in the collective grief felt by communities and across cultures. Amid all this tragedy, however, it’s important to remember the enduring power of art. It can serve as a beacon of hope across what sometimes feels like a dark landscape of uncertainty. Walter’s legacy, like that of many artists who grappled with the horrors of war, serves as a testament to the enduring nature of creativity despite the darkness that surrounds us. Art has an uncanny ability to illuminate our shared humanity. It offers us comfort, a place to laugh, a place to cry, and a place to heal. In honoring Walter’s memory and the memory of so many like him we’re reminded of the indomitable spirit of resilience that’s within all of us, a spirit that persists across time and continues to inspire hope for a brighter tomorrow.

[00:45:21] Walter Cichon is memorialized on The Wall at Panel 47 East, Line 9. You can check out his Wall of Faces page and read the many remembrances people have left for him by visiting vvmf.org and clicking on the Wall of Faces at the top of the page. I don’t know about you, but I just loved having Caroline on board for this episode and Al and Dan Roth for episode 74. Maybe I just like hearing a voice other than my own for a change, But more importantly, there’s just no way I can gather enough stories from Vietnam veterans on my own in the time we have left. So having a little help here and there really helps us scale our efforts. Maybe you’d like to help too. Do you know a veteran whose stories need to be documented and preserved? Do you have an appetite for participating in that process? If so, get in touch by emailing [email protected] and let’s talk about it. Wait a minute. What am I thinking? We should go out on The Motifs, right? Here they are with their song Molly featuring front man, Walter Cichon.

[00:46:40] (THE MOTIFS) I wrote a poem. Molly, my baby and I fell out. And what do you think it was all about? Well, she liked coffee, and I like tea. To. And that’s the reason we couldn’t agree.

[00:46:55] (HOST) We’ll be back in two weeks with more stories of service, sacrifice and healing. See you then.

[00:47:02] (THE MOTIFS) Oh. I say, Molly. Yeah. What do you like? Coffee? Uh huh. Well, she said baby. Yeah. What do you like? Tea? Oh, please. No, honey. Don’t look so funny. I drink coffee, baby. When I drink and say baby. No, baby. No. That’s crazy. Oh, I think I’m kissing coffee, baby. Yeah.

No video interviews are available for this episode.

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