Development

Herron Scholarship Helps Bring History to Life for Tech Students

Lee Roy Herron and David Nelson were inseparable growing up. The two graduated Lubbock High School together and they both attended Texas Tech, where they joined the Marine Corps� officer training program.

Some time after receiving their second lieutenant commissions and graduating from Texas Tech, Herron was sent to Vietnam, where he was killed in battle after single-handedly destroying an enemy machine-gun bunker. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the second-highest honor the Marines can give for bravery.

To honor his fallen friend, Nelson � along with a group of other Vietnam veterans -- started the Lee Roy Herron Memorial Endowed Scholarship at Texas Tech University.

After making contact with fellow Lubbock High School graduates and Herron�s commanding officer, Medal of Honor recipient Col. Wesley Fox, Nelson worked with the Office of Development at Texas Tech to establish a scholarship in Herron�s name. The fund, which started at $33,000 in 2001, has grown to more than $176,000 thanks to Nelson's tenacity, individual contributions and a recent $100,000 gift from the Houston Endowment. Nelson recently retired from the Houston Endowment, and the gift was made in his honor.

James Reckner, director of the Texas Tech Vietnam Center, says the endowment offers students tremendous opportunities for hands-on learning. The interest earned from the endowment is used to help students pay for a summer study trip to Vietnam, where they experience firsthand some of the sights, sounds and uncomfortable weather Herron and other American servicemen experienced during the war.

�You get out of the airport and you get hit by a wall of heat and humidity that fogs your glasses and causes the lightest of clothing to wilt,� Reckner says. But our servicemen wore full combat uniforms, flak jackets, helmets, packs, combat boots and a weapon, and spent days patrolling in remote jungles. Just coming to grips with the environment in which we fought gives the younger generation of students an important insight into the American Vietnam experience.

"At another level, the study trip to Vietnam and Cambodia affords Texas Tech students an opportunity to meet the younger generation in those countries in a peaceful way, rather than through war. I am certain Lee Roy Herron would be gratified that the scholarship in his name made this possible," Reckner says.

Reckner says the Vietnam Center is planning a trip for next summer that, in addition to key sites in Vietnam, will include a visit to Cambodia, where, beginning in 1975, the radical Communist Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 30 percent of that country�s population. The students will travel to historic sites in a Cambodia that preserve the terrible remnants of "The Killing Fields."

"I can describe the depths of depravity to which the genocidal Khmer Rouge government descended; however, verbal descriptions simply pale by comparison to a visit to the torture center of Tuol Sleng, in downtown Phnom Penh, and the mass murder site of Cheong Ek, on the outskirts of the city," Reckner says.

While in Cambodia, the students will visit the temple complex of Angkor Wat, some 70 square miles of temples constructed eight centuries ago, when the Khmer Empire was at its peak. How these two monuments -- one to cultural achievement and the other to terrible genocide -- can exist side-by-side within the history of a single people is a mystery students will be encouraged to contemplate, Reckner says.

The Herron Scholarship has grown thanks to Nelson and a host of other donors, friends and classmates of Herron�s from Lubbock High School and Texas Tech, Reckner says.

�Their generosity and commitment to commemorating Lee Roy Herron's life has resulted in a continuing commitment to educating young Tech students about the war in which Lee Roy made the ultimate sacrifice,� he says. �On behalf of the students who will benefit so greatly from this scholarship, I extend my sincere thanks.�

 

Jan 15, 2020