By Jim Lisk, Editor
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 — After 39 years, two Vietnam War vets were reunited over the July 4th weekend, and both readily admitted, the Good Lord had a major hand in making their Lake Tillery reunion a reality.
As young, 20-year-old Navy Seabees, John Monds and Eddie Howell met for the first time at Port Hueneme, Calif. when they joined the same Navy construction battalion and were singled out by fellow Seabees... “He’s from North Carolina too.”
Monds, who now is retired and lives with his wife Connie on Lake Tillery, grew up in Wilmington while Howell was from Pikeville, a small town near Goldsboro.
Once they met, the two and another buddy became inseparable, exploring the countryside of southern California in Howell’s two-seater Triumph Spitfire at 80 miles an hour on the Ventura Freeway.
On Sunday, the curvy, narrow Willow Oak Road that leads to John and Connie Monds beautiful home on Lake Tillery was light years away from the Ventura Freeway in years spent and speed of motion, but as is often the case with old friends, the years faded away as quickly as Howell’s Spitfire on the California pavement nearly four decades ago.
Such was the case as Monds and his wife Connie welcomed Howell and his wife Betty, who now live in Swannsboro, to their home Sunday afternoon.
The two first laid eyes on each other on the front lawn, just in front of a flag pole that proudly flew the American flag. In that brief moment, their minds were instantly alive with memories from 3,000 miles across this great country and from a time and a war where American protesters actually burned the American flag in America’s streets.
On this moderate temperature sabbath, there was a blessed joy as these two comrades in battle again clutched each other’s hand with warm affection in the security of Stanly County.
Once inside, the two Seabees enjoyed old pictures from their battalion yearbook that showed each of them in action. The photo of a shirtless John Monds with his six-pack abs drew an appreciative comment from his No. 1 supporter.
“I’d like to have known him back then,” said a smiling Connie Monds.
Touring the Monds lovely home, the two old buddies were all smiles and the similarities of their lives after the war left Eddie Howell shaking his head.
“I can’t believe how much alike our houses are,” said Howell, who after leaving the Navy worked for a phone company, just as Monds had done.
The more they talked... the more they shook their heads with all the common ground.
While the Monds and Howells were thrilled with the reunion, there was another couple traveling with the Howells that were key to the Independence Day Weekend reunion occurring in the first place.
That couple was Virgil and Nancy Dial of Indian Trail. Virgil, also a Vietnam War veteran, was an Army Aviation crew chief servicing all types of aircraft, and Nancy and Betty Howell are sisters, who grew up in Tazewell County, Virginia, near Bluefield.
In the last three years, Virgil’s life has taken on a new war as he has literally picked up his cross, or the wood of the cross, and is following Jesus Christ with a cross creation ministry.
From natural wood that is abandoned or headed to the garbage dump, Virgil sees Biblical symbolism, such as the head, body and eye of a serpent or the flame of the Holy Spirit, and carves a cross.
Last September, Connie Monds was attending a United Methodist Women’s Spiritual Retreat in Lake Junaluska and there met Nancy Dial, who had brought over 100 of Virgil’s crosses which were given away to ladies at the retreat.
So inspired by Virgil’s crosses and once home from the retreat, the Monds made a trip to Indian Trail to meet Virgil and choose a cross for their home. It was while there that the connection of the two Seabee buddies was made.
“John mentioned that he was a Seabee and Nancy responded that her brother-in-law was a Seabee,” Connie said Sunday as the three couples shared the curvy-road story that led them to this moment in time.
Earlier in the day, the Howells and Dials had been in church at Bethany United Methodist Church in Albemarle as Virgil shared his cross ministry and the impact it is having in the world.
“I’m just overwhelmed with what God is doing. I feel like the little boy with the five fish and two loaves of bread,” said Virgil, who stopped counting how many he’d carved at 5,000.
In one of his crosses, Virgil points to a likeness of a flame in the cedar wood that when turned 45 degrees resembles a fish.
“Jesus calls us to be fishers of men,” Virgil said. “Jesus has truly blessed the crosses just as he did the five fish and two loaves.”
To date, Virgil’s crosses are in offices in the Pentagon and that of Congresswoman Sue Myrick and evangelist Franklin Graham. Other crosses are in 15 countries and 33 states. Many have been taken on trips by missionaries, including 135 to a church in Ecuador.
On Sunday, Connie proudly displayed the cross that Virgil had carved for her, and as with all his carvings, burnt into the wood is the reference to why he does all this - “John 3:16.”
“I’m being so blessed by doing this. God orchestrated all this,” said Virgil, as his fellow Vietnam veterans continued to glow in the light of their reunion.
