Vietnam veteran from Minnesota to be posthumously honored in Washington, D.C.

A Minnesota family is preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., this week to honor a Vietnam War veteran whose family says his service continued to affect him long after he came home.

Lt. Col. Maurice Leon Smith Jr. will be honored Saturday as part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's In Memory ceremony. The program recognizes Vietnam veterans who returned home but later died as a result of their service.

Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1947, grew up in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and graduated from Cretin High School in 1965. He later graduated from the University of Minnesota before entering officer training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

His daughter, Kelly Rondeau, said military service was part of the family. Smith's father also served in the Army and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Smith had hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and become a pilot, Rondeau said. His family still has a letter from Hubert Humphrey encouraging that path. Rondeau said her father later went into the Army after eyesight issues kept him from becoming a pilot.

Smith served in Vietnam in 1970, shortly after his oldest daughter was born. He later returned to Minnesota, taught ROTC at St. John's University in St. Cloud and remained in the reserves. Rondeau said he had about 20 years of military service.

According to Rondeau, her father rarely talked about Vietnam while she was growing up. After her grandmother died, the family found letters Smith had written home during the war.

"It was pretty special to be able to get to know him through those letters," Rondeau said.

Smith was later diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma when Rondeau was in sixth grade. She said he went through years of chemotherapy, radiation and an experimental bone marrow transplant at the University of Minnesota.

Rondeau said her father's cancer was linked to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. She said he once told her the barrels used to store the herbicide were cut in half and used as barbecue pits.

"All of these people over there had no idea that they were being poisoned," Rondeau said.

Smith died in 1991 at the age of 44. Rondeau was 15.

"I've lived much more of my life without him than with him," she said.

Rondeau described her father as a devoted dad who took her to volleyball and softball practice, went camping with her and taught her about the outdoors. She said he was funny, adventurous and deeply committed to his family.

This weekend, Rondeau will travel to Washington, D.C. with family members for the In ceremony near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Smith's name will be read aloud during the ceremony.

Rondeau said the ceremony is an important way to recognize veterans whose deaths came years after the war.

"I think it's really special, that acknowledgement that the deaths from Vietnam haven't ended and there are people and families that are still suffering because of that," she said.

Rondeau said she hopes sharing her father's story will help other families learn about the In Memory program.

"I've had 35 years where I really haven't gotten to do anything for my dad, and so I feel really happy that I get to do something for him," she said.