Ray Tretheway
It’s not every day that a politician weeps in public, at least when they haven’t just lost an election or admitted an affair.
So it was a little startling to see Ray Tretheway well up during an otherwise festive, celebratory forum Tuesday evening before the Sacramento City Council designated a 1 1/2-mile stretch of Stockton Boulevard as “Little Saigon.” The city’s first official ethnic neighborhood recognizes all the hard work and success of Vietnamese American residents there.
Council members sat through a polished presentation by supporters, complete with PowerPoint slides and heartfelt speeches from business owners, residents and others. When it came time for council members to chime in, most were ebullient as well.
Tretheway, however, struggled for the right words. He talked about serving in Vietnam, and like many in that generation, not knowing why he was there. He mentioned the chilly reception when he returned home, and compared that experience to the hurt and harassment faced by the first Vietnamese who resettled in Sacramento two decades ago.
“Now I know why I was there,” he said, dabbing his eyes, not quite explaining what he meant.
The next day, he filled in more of the back story.
He had a desk job with the 34th Engineer Battalion in the Mekong Delta for about 15 months in 1968-69. He says he never fired a shot and the closest he came to harm was when a shell hit the barracks next to his and once when a sniper took a shot at him.
While he didn’t face the horrors of combat, he was scarred by the experience nonetheless. He hasn’t talked publicly about his Vietnam experience in detail, and says he didn’t talk to anyone about it for a decade afterward.
Tretheway, who has represented the Natomas area since 2001 and faces what could be a tough re-election fight in June, says he didn’t plan to get all emotional (“It surprised the heck out of me”) and wasn’t seeking sympathy.
Instead, he says that earlier Tuesday, Councilman Kevin McCarty, who championed the proposal, told him he had received some “bad” e-mail from Vietnam vets in opposition. Then, as the Little Saigon supporters spoke, Tretheway says he was struck by their unity and pride. And it hit him that fate had put him in a place where he could help heal lingering wounds from the war.
Now 62, his life seems to have come full circle. “It was totally cathartic,” he says. “After 40 years, I just found out that I had come to peace with myself about why I was there.”
Some of us have those moments of clarity in our lives. Ray Tretheway’s just happened to play out in full view of the city.