WASHINGTON – In 1979, Dean Phillips, then 10 years old and driving home from hockey, was told a story by his mother that changed him forever. His biological father had died in the Vietnam War at 6 months of age, a man Phillips had never known.
Phillips has been determined to find out all the details about Army Captain since that day in 1979. Arthur “Artie Pfefer” — and visit one day the place where his dad spent his last moments.
Phillips, a Democratic Congressman from Minnesota who is now Phillips fulfilled his lifelong dream by embarking on a pilgrimage in Vietnam to Dragon Mountain, where the helicopter crash killed Pfeferand 7 other soldiers 54 years earlier.
“It was exciting and frightening, and I could have done it much earlier.” Phillips, in his first extended televised conversation about the trip, said that he may not have had the courage to go on the journey.
He continued, “It was a mission.” “When I arrived, I thought, ‘This was where he breathed his last.’ For me, it felt as if I could take my very first breath.”
Phillips, upon arriving in Vietnam in march, drew inspiration from his traveling companions, which included Woody Harrelson. The actor had rented Phillips’ house in Minnesota while filming the movie “Wilson”.
“To see him have such a huge emotional catharsis, and to be able to embrace Phillips, and weep with him on the mountain, was powerful,” said Harrelson.
Harrelson said, “I think it changed me.” Paul Simon once said, “After many changes, we’re more or less the Same.”
Threes are better than two
Phillips wanted to buy sunflowers, a symbol of the peace of the 1960s. But the group was running late to get to the airport in Hanoi to catch their flight to central Vietnam. A woman on a motorcycle pulled up alongside the van of the group at a stoplight, holding a bouquet. Phillips ran out to buy them.
The group, now including Vietnamese and American officials had no idea of the location of the crash. Pyek Roncham, a man walking down the path, told them that he lived on the mountain 60 years ago and had collected scrap metal and MREs with his brothers back in 1969. He showed them exactly where the crash site was. It is now part of a large coffee plantation.
They found two red peppers while walking to the site. Phillips’ friend pointed out that “Pfeffer”, the German word for pepper, is his father’s surname.
Sunflowers. Coffee. Peppers.
“Weird things happen in 3s.” Phillips stated that this was an excellent example.
Phillips buried his congressional coin and sunflowers in the dirt on Dragon Mountain near the former U.S. Army Camp Enari. This is where his father’s Huey helicopter crashed many years ago. Phillips bagged some dirt to keep as a souvenir and purchased a bag of 50 kilograms of coffee beans.
It was a wonderful sight. “It was a beautiful sight.” It was full of pine trees. It felt like Minnesota, our home, the place where my father was raised, the place where I was brought up and where I still call home,” Phillips stated during an interview in Washington, D.C. overlooking the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Capt. Arthur Pfefer is one of over 58,000 U.S. military personnel who died during the Vietnam War. Their names are etched on the memorial made of black granite that provides a view of the U.S. Capitol, where his son works. In the bloody, long war, 2 million Vietnamese civilians died.
Phillips, who funded the trip himself, said that he felt fortunate to have made the trip and now wants to help others visit the places their loved ones died and served.
Phillips, along with Rep. Richard Hudson (a North Carolina Republican), teamed up ahead of Memorial Day to introduce the Love Lives on Act. This bill would allow spouses who remarry after losing a servicemember to retain their survivor benefits. Phillips’ mother also lost hers.
“Both loss and possible”
DeeDee Philips always believed that visiting the Vietnam Memorial would be painful. This month, DeeDee Phillips visited the Vietnam Memorial with her son for the first. They walked along the wall, and wrote the name ARTHUR PFEFER on panel 20W.
Pfefer never met his son but he had heard Phillips babbling in the reel-to-reel recordings that his mother and Pfefer traded during his deployment.
Phillips heard his biological father for the first half-century. Phillips found the tapes a few years back. One of them features Pfefer singing a 1965 hit by The Animals which became an anthem to Vietnam War soldiers. We gotta leave this place …”
I wanted to hear his voice and see a video of him. Phillips said, “I never had it in my whole life.” She added: “He would have made a much better lawyer than singer.”
DeeDee Philips says she decided initially not to tell her child about his biological dad. She said, “It was a terrible tragedy.” “I didn’t know what to do.”
Friends told her that it was the right decision. Later, Phillips got to spend time with Pfefer’s mother who taught him to play the piano, cooked him matzah balls soup, and shared photos and stories about Pfefer.
Phillips’s presence reminded family and friends of Pfefer’s absence. Phillips looks just like his father. His grandmother Ruth would cry whenever she saw him. Strangers in the airport who knew his father have stopped him.
Phillips stated, “It is a paradox that I am both a symbol of loss and possibilty.”
Seven other Army members were killed in the crash of the helicopter: Chief Warrant Officer Stewart B. Goldberg from Baltimore; Specialist 4th class David M. Valdez from Los Angeles; Captain. Elvernon Pelle of Williamston in North Carolina; Captain. Vincent F. Sabatinelli, of Southbridge in Massachusetts; Sgt. Sgt. Gerald E. Du Beau, of Springfield, Illinois and Specialist 4th class Ronald K. Dycks from Cleveland.
“The Impact of What We Do”
DeeDee Phillips married Eddie Phillips in 1972. Eddie was the son of advice-columnist “Dear Abby”, and heir to an enormous wine and spirit fortune. He raised the future congressman as his own son, and installed him as the head of Phillips Distilling in 2018, before the younger Phillips was elected to office.
Phillips, 54, is more than twice the age of his father when he passed away. Phillips said that learning about Pfefer Pfefer’s sacrifice and service to his country “absolutely changed my course,” and hammered home the message that “everyday is a blessing.” Phillips and Harrelson visited the lake in which McCain’s plane crashed and the Hanoi Hilton, where McCain and American POWs had been tortured.
Phillips, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as a member of the Democratic Leadership Team, said that he always thinks of the members of Congress who served during the 1960s when he takes out his voting card.
“In the instance of my father, Artie’s, Congress gave him the chance to attend college and obtain his law degree at that time. Phillips pointed out that his father would not have been able do this without federal support.
“And these same men in Congress… voted also to send young soldiers to war, which included my dad. It cost him his own life. “I realized the impact of our work,” he said. “It is not trivial, it is really meaningful.”
