Barry Romo, Vietnam War veteran and antiwar activist, dies at 76

Barry Romo wanted to serve in the Vietnam War after graduating high school, but after he saw the war's devastation during his short service, he dedicated his life to ending that war and fighting for social justice.

He became an esteemed member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The group was founded in 1967 in New York and was later headquartered in Chicago, where he rallied at countless antiwar demonstrations and spoke to high school and college students about antiwar activism.

“What was the best ever for him was being a part of the struggle for justice, for freedom, for people, for peace, and being there for other people that are deep in that struggle,” said Aaron Hughes, an Iraq War veteran and mentee of Mr. Romo's. “And it wasn’t just in some academic or conceptual way, but living through it and trying to figure out how to live in a way that can bring about a better, more peaceful world.”

Mr. Romo died May 1 of a heart attack. He was 76.

He was born July 24, 1947, to Louis and Lillian Romo, and grew up in San Bernardino, California.

Mr. Romo was sent to Vietnam in 1967, and his experiences there marked him profoundly. His nephew Robert, who was only a month younger than him, was drafted around the same time. Robert didn't want to fight in the war, but he was assigned to Mr. Romo's brigade.

A year later, Robert was killed at Dong Ha while running to save a wounded friend in battle. Mr. Romo escorted his nephew’s body home to California.

"I had white gloves on, and a uniform with my medals, but I felt dirty," Mr. Romo said in a 2015 NPR interview. "You know, I thought I was gonna die in Vietnam. But I didn't have to go back there. I had my ticket punched by my nephew's blood."

Mr. Romo was honorably discharged from the military in 1969.

After struggling to adjust to life after the war, Mr. Romo eventually enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College in 1971 and involved himself in antiwar activism.

Mr. Romo was elected to the VVAW national office in 1972. He returned to Vietnam that December to deliver Christmas gifts to 535 prisoners of war. For 11 days, he lived under the Christmas bombings, an operation overseen by President Richard Nixon that included more than 200 American B-52 bombers dropping more than 20,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam.

Mr. Romo is considered by the VVAW to be the only combat veteran to fight in South Vietnam, then live under the bombings in North Vietnam other than prisoners of war. As the publisher of the VVAW newspaper, The Veteran, Mr. Romo chronicled the bombings of hospitals, houses, POW camps and foreign embassies.

"During this time we observed the massive destruction, the human pain and sorrow, watched the people cry; and cried with them. It is not the suffering that I remember now, but the examples of heroism, kindness and strength of the Vietnamese," Mr. Romo wrote in The Veteran.

Mr. Romo returned to Vietnam in 1987 and spent 10 days there as part of the first postwar VVAW delegation to the country. This time, he and other VVAW members toured the country for a glimpse at life after the war, but, he admitted in The Veteran, "this trip would be no easier, only different."

"The shadows and memories: the ghosts are still present after 20 years," Mr. Romo wrote.

Mr. Romo also traveled elsewhere in the world, such as to the Philippines in 1989 to document human rights violations by U.S. service members and the U.S.-trained Philippine military, and to Colombia 10 years later where he recorded proof of the Colombian military using U.S. helicopters to bomb a village and kill 19 people, including seven children.

In the 1980s, Mr. Romo served on the Veterans Advisory Committee for Mayor Harold Washington.

He started making yearly visits that decade to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to speak to fellow VVAW member Joe Miller's political science classes. There he also demonstrated to young activists how to peacefully and effectively protest.

“The main thing is how he never stopped doing what he felt was necessary to help young people to organize, help young people not only learn about the Vietnam war, but to learn about how to do politics in the streets and be safe,” Miller said.

Mr. Romo started a new job in 1985 at the old post office facility at O’Hare Airport, where he worked the overnight shift and served as a branch president for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO, until he retired in 2009.

His co-worker at the post office, Marcus Waller, said Mr. Romo should simply be remembered as “a man of service.”

“He literally went out of his way to help everybody that needed help at the post office,” Waller said. “If he saw someone that needed a shoulder to hold on, he’d be there for them.”

Hughes, the Iraq War veteran, said one of his most memorable experiences with Mr. Romo came in 2007 when they went to speak at the University of Iowa. Hughes connected with a fellow Iraq War veteran, whose play about serving in the Abu Ghraib prison “tore” him up.

“I was a bit of a mess emotionally and I just remember getting back from that program and just crying and crying and crying, and Barry grabbed me and he just held me and he said, ‘It’s going to be OK, it’s going to be OK,’” Hughes said. “Barry was there for a lot of people in that way, holding them up and caring for them, and creating space for them to kind of process their military experiences and also do that through activism, through action, which is a really beautiful thing.”

Mr. Romo is survived by his son, Kyle Copeland, daughter Jessi O’Reilly-Jones, and ex-wife Alynne Romo.

A memorial is planned for 11 a.m. Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Chicago.