Thanks to Internet, Friesen contacts old Army friend
Wayne Friesen plans reunion with friend
he hasn't seen
in more than 34 years
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
The last time Wayne Friesen saw Brad Kandel was February 12, 1969.
It was the war in Vietnam, and both men had just jumped out of a helicopter flying into heavy fire — a "hot" zone. They were members of C Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, of the 101st Airborne Division.
Friesen jumped out of one side of the helicopter and safely hit the landing zone. Kandel jumped out the other side and was hit by enemy fire. He was hit through the knee — a "million dollar wound" that was just bad enough to get him out of there.
In all, 15 or 16 men out of the 65 in C Company were hit as they came in, Friesen remembers. Everyone stayed while the medivac ambulance helicopters flew in to pick up the wounded. Then the remaining soldiers headed into the jungle for combat.
Six days later, Friesen and the rest of his company were back at base camp in Phan thiet. But by then, the wounded had left again.
Thirty-four years later, Wayne Friesen has made contact with Kandel, and they've planned a reunion this summer — thanks to the power of the Internet.
Friesen, a native of Newton, never really tried to contact any of his friends from Vietnam. It was a time he'd rather forget, he said.
Friesen was drafted into the Army in October of 1967. After basic training and infantry training in Missouri and Louisiana, he was sent for a one-year tour in Vietnam, beginning in April of 1968.
That's where he met Brad Kandel, a native of Chicago. Both men were assigned to the same unit and went to the same places.
"We became pretty good friends," Friesen said. They covered each other in combat.
And it was a particularly nightmarish kind of combat, with no set front line and no perimeter. Enemies could be anywhere, he said.
Friesen and Kandel served together for more than 10 months before Kandel's injury in February of '69. Three months later, Friesen's tour was up, and he headed back to the states.
Each draftee was required to spend two years in the service, and when Friesen got back to the United States, he spent his remaining six months training ROTC cadets at Fort Riley.
He then moved back to the Marion County area, where he met his wife, Linda. They got married in 1971 and had three children — two daughters and one son. For the last 27 years, Friesen has worked for Cooperative Grain and Supply and lived in Hillsboro.
Six weeks ago, one of Friesen's daughters, Becky Soyez, decided to look up Brad Kandel on the Internet through a people search Web site. She typed in his name, and one result came back: Brad Kandel was living in Lombard, Ill.
That night, Friesen dialed Kandel's home number, got the answering machine, but didn't leave a message. The next night he called again, and this time he left a message.
On the third night, Kandel called Friesen, and the two talked for an hour.
"It was good to talk to him," Friesen said. The two caught up on "everything," and Friesen learned that his friend had had a good life — he was a retired Teamster truck driver and married with two children. His knee wound didn't seriously affect his life.
Later this summer, possibly in August or September, the two friends who last saw each other 34 years ago will reunite at Kandel's home in Chicago. And Friesen will probably tease Kandel about his thick Chicago accent that makes him sound like a stereotypical gangster.
"I'm looking forward to seeing him," Friesen said.
