Corinth man steps up for noble cause

On a trip to Vietnam last year, one of many goodwill excursions hehas made over four decades, Roger Marshall saw evidence of a landstruggling to revive its prewar image.

In many of the cities and towns, old hotels, landmarks andbusinesses were being restored in an effort to attract touristdollars that might help shore up sagging local economies. Some of thepeople on the streets seemed to be reasonably well-dressed, too,which added to the appearance of a burgeoning prosperity in placesonce ravaged by years of war.

But Marshall, a retired prosthetist who lives in Corinth, knew thepretty urban facelifts belied an ugly reality that still existed inthe countryside, where so many farming and fishing families live inpoverty. In Vietnam's rural regions, the dangerous legacy of thatlong-ago war - an estimated 300,000 tons of unexploded mines andbombs - continues to maim and kill with alarming frequency. There arenew victims every week, many of them children who scrounge for scrapmetal they sell to help their families survive.

"It will be many years before all the unexploded ordnance iscleared from the ground," said Marshall, who first learned how tomake and fit artificial limbs while serving as a medic in the RoyalAir Force during the Vietnam War. "Many of those who lost limbs inthe war are still in the villages, but there are more young victimsall the time."

While Marshall was in Vietnam teaching a prosthetics course in ahospital near Hanoi, several people were killed in a bomb explosionwhile on a river-dredging project. Not long before that, six childrenwere killed and two blinded by an old grenade they had unearthed.

"Because the people are so poor, there is no chance of themgetting the prosthetic devices they need," said Marshall, who workedat Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and later in privatepractice before retiring two years ago.

Marshall's goal is to build a clinic in the impoverished provinceof Quang Ngai, a few miles from the site of the infamous My Laimassacre, where he had trained Vietnamese students in the craft from1968 to 1972. More than 26,000 people in Quang Ngai are disabled, hesaid, and more than 4,000 of them are in need of artificial limbs andbone-straightening orthotic devices that will allow them to walkagain.

In the last few years, Marshall has returned to Vietnam six timesto set the groundwork for his ambitious healing project, which hehopes will one day include an operating room, a manufacturing shop, adormitory for patients and lecture rooms.

Marshall, a British-born American citizen, has already persuadedgovernment health officials to donate land in Quang Ngai on which tobuild the clinic, and to pay the treatment costs as well as thesalaries of a dozen or so staff members. But raising the $250,000necessary to begin the work has been less successful of late. Throughthe Fund for Reconciliation and Development, a New York-basedcharitable organization that has worked extensively in Southeast Asiasince the war, Marshall was able to raise about $50,000 before hisfund-raising efforts stalled.

"With the present economy as it is, and the tragic events of Sept.11, it's become very difficult for charitable organizations to raisemoney these days," he said. "Everyone's having a hard time."

So while Marshall prepares to launch a new mass-mailing campaign -details about the clinic can be found at www.vietnamrehab.org. - hehas also had to think up some novel fund-raising approaches in orderto finance his dream.

He intends to place on eBay, the popular Internet auction site, anelectric guitar signed by each member of the legendary rock band TheMoody Blues. His son, Gordon, is the band's drummer.

The 66-year-old Marshall, who recently became a certifiedhypnotherapist, also hopes to stage a parachute jump with someVietnam veteran friends at a Pittsfield sky-diving club to bringattention to his cause. He made his first jump only last month whileat a reunion of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, whosemembers have expressed an interest in joining Marshall's effort.

"Everyone, in his own way, has some kind of mission in life,"Marshall said, "and the health care field is where I have alwaysfunctioned best in realizing my goals. When I see those disabledpeople in Vietnam who so desperately need help, especially thechildren, it's impossible for me to just walk away and do nothing."