Another There are times when Tommy D still has trouble talking about his Vietnam experiences. How do you explain what it's like to watch a friend die? Who can understand how it feels to have someone risk their life to keep you alive?
fortunate son
Local performer Tommy D
By John Berger
finds himself part of Paul Revere's
ride to help and honor veterans
of the Vietnam War
Star-BulletinLike many Vietnam veterans, Tommy found it easier to keep his thoughts inside and try to move on. People here know him as an entertainer. Although he played rock music for years he's best known these days as a celebrity impressionist portraying Roy Orbison with "Legends In Concert" and currently with "Aloha Las Vegas."
"Over the years there've been things said about Tommy D as a fighter but people didn't understand where the rage came from. They didn't go through what we went through and for so many years people didn't know that I was a Vietnam veteran," Tommy says. "They thought I was the little crazy Tommy D rock 'n' roller clown.
"It wasn't until Joe Moore and Ron Mizutani did a story on me a few years ago that people knew. It's because I was blessed with the ability to play music and do martial arts that I didn't go nuts like a lot of my buddies," he says.
Nothing Tommy has done over the past 30 years means more to him than having two of his songs included on "Ride to the Wall," a new album recorded by Paul Revere & The Raiders to honor America's Vietnam vets.
Revere compiled a list of the songs that had meant the most to the men and women doing time in 'Nam. He decided that he wanted to include a couple of songs written specifically for the album and asked Tommy, whom he knew as both a songwriter and Vietnam vet. Tommy contributed two: "Ride to the Wall" and "Armed Forces Radio." All net proceeds from the sale of the album will go to The Ride to the Wall Foundation and from there to approved veterans' outreach programs.
"Paul Revere & The Raiders took the songs that kept us going while we were there," Tommy said. "When we hear them today it reminds us to be proud and to have the spirit of a warrior but also have the love in our heart for our fellow veterans."
The release of the new album coincides with a free concert Paul Revere & The Raiders are presenting this Sunday in Washington D.C. Call (208) 344-5794 for information or visit www.ridetothewall.org.
Among Revere's guests will be Adrian Cronauer, the Armed Forces Radio disc jockey immortalized by Robin Williams in the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam." Revere has been criss-crossing the country on his Harley since the April 18 performing and helping to raise awareness of veterans' issues on the way to Washington.
Tommy will be there too. It'll be the first time since the war that he'll see Nicky Capezzera -- the man who saved his life in 1967.
"We got in an ambush in Operation CEDAR FALLS and one of our buddies got shot and five of us ran out there to grab him because we were under heavy fire. We took about three steps and one of the guys stepped on a land mine, blew him to hell and back, and the only thing that saved me was the guy on the stretcher. His body hit me in the face and knocked me about 13 feet in the air and opened up my left eye and everything else. I came down on the back of my neck and I thought that was it.
"Nicky came out of nowhere and grabbed me while they were shooting at him. The last thing I remembered they were dusting me off (in a helicopter). Nicky rotated back to the United States and we never saw each other again. The last thing he saw was a bloody face -- me being put on a dust-off (helicopter) -- and he thought I was dead."
A Vietnam veteran's support group, Locate A Brother, was able to get Tommy and Nicky hooked up for a telephone conversation a few years ago. They'll meet face-to-face for the first time in 34 years this weekend.
"I never thought a little guy from Florida would not only survive the war and be an entertainer but be able to give back to the guys," Tommy says, apologizing several times when memories of the friends he lost force him to pause.
"People today know me as a Roy Orbison impersonator but I'm more than that and it's nice to have an opportunity at my age to still be blessed to not only entertain people as Roy Orbison but now to represent my fellow comrades."
Tommy was an 18-year-old orphan when he went to Vietnam. "A lot of my friends had already gone over to Vietnam and I felt since those guys had mothers and fathers, some had girlfriends or wives, that I should be over there too. Some people think I was crazy but at that time I felt that was where I should be."
Tommy was a member of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. More than 1,400 men from the 196th died in Vietnam. Tommy was one of the "lucky" ones, but he discovered that his war wasn't over when he returned to "the world." Like many vets he found himself reviled by anti-war protesters. He says he also had to fight the government to get the benefits he was due.
"I went through two wars. The first war was the actual war in Vietnam. The second was back in the states where it took me 14 years fighting the VA (Veterans Administration) to get my disability (benefits). I have no chip on my shoulder but I do say that we're not something to be swept under the carpet. People say 'Get over it' -- well, if they'd been there they'd know you don't 'get over it.' "
Revere's commitment to America's Vietnam vets began by accident when he and the Raiders added "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" to their show set several years ago. It seemed a logical pick because it had been written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, the duo who'd written "Kicks" and "Hungry" for the Raiders. Revere didn't intend to make any kind of political statement, but before long he was hearing from a lot of vets who'd considered the song their anthem back when they were doing their 365 days in 'Nam.
One anonymous vet gave Revere a tattered flag folded in the triangle shape seen at military funerals. Another vet, a member of a Vietvet motorcycle club, gave Revere his leather vest with the club colors on it. Revere -- a proud Harley rider himself -- understood the significance of the gesture ("Nobody gives you their colors," he explained in a recent telephone interview).
Conversations with other veterans got him in contact with Rolling Thunder, a national advocacy organization composed primarily of Vietnam vets and their spouses. Revere began working up a list of the other songs that had meant the most to the men in 'Nam.
Revere's plans for an album evolved in tandem with plans for a free concert that would be part of Rolling Thunder's annual ride to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall) in Washington.
Revere decided he wanted some specially written songs as well as his guys' interpretations of classics like "Fortunate Son" and "Born to Be Wild." Tommy got the call and did his part.
"I've always wanted to be known for my songs, not so much as an entertainer, and to be remembered as a singer-songwriter that gave back and didn't take from nobody. That's where I'm at now and hopefully this will open another door."
"When I came to Waikiki there were people who told me that I'd never make it in this town," he says, a touch of bitterness in his voice. It hasn't been easy. The two things that helped him cope were music and martial arts. Tommy spent a lot of time playing in cover bands and playing to tourist audiences in Waikiki lounges before he was invited to join "Legends."
"I know there've been people who took me for a little jolly clown or 'just an impersonator,' but I've done movies, stunt work, martial arts, and this in my mid-life is a nice chapter. The people who wrote me off and said I should be put out to pasture or that I was living in the past with the oldies, well, I'm still here!"
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