U.S. Army veteran and poet Vince Gotera visited the Iowa Veterans Home on Tuesday afternoon, reading selections from his published works to residents and staff.
Gotera, 72, a retired professor and writer from Waterloo, has been Iowa’s poet laureate for two years and serves on the board of Humanities Iowa. The event took place in the Leisure Resource Center in Malloy Hall.
IVH librarian Catherine Noble, who introduced Gotera, highlighted his accomplishments, noting that he has published more than 300 poems and four books of poetry. Though he was stationed at Fort Ord near Monterey Bay, California, during the Vietnam War, he emphasized that he did not serve in Vietnam.
Before beginning his reading, Gotera shared a lighthearted remark about his time in the Army. “I still have my old field jacket—it still fits and zips up,” he joked. “I don’t know if I could fit into my uniform, though.”
One of his poems, My Father’s Business, reflects on how his father instilled Army discipline at home in San Francisco.
“There were many ways to do things, but the right way was the ‘Army way,’” he said. “How to make a bed, how to sweep and wax the floor … how to spit-shine shoes and how to peel potatoes.”
He recalled in both poetry and prose how peeling potatoes in the Army was no myth.
“I learned the hard way that peeling spuds in Kitchen Patrol was not a joke,” he said. “We would start in the day and work into the night.”
Gotera continued his reading with a poem about his basic training experience in 1972, describing the loud and rigorous environment of a soldier’s life.
“Being a soldier meant a lot of noise—rifles at the range, yells of ‘ready on the left, ready on the right, fire at will,’ an M-16 barrage, live grenades, marching cadences,” he recited.
A third-generation Army veteran, Gotera shared his family’s deep military history. His grandfather served in World War I and World War II, while his father, also an Army veteran, fought in World War II as a Filipino scout. Both were captured by Japanese forces and survived the Bataan Death March, a brutal forced march where thousands of American and Filipino soldiers perished.
“My grandfather was in his 50s during captivity,” Gotera said. “My father helped him survive in the concentration camp.”
However, not all family members were as fortunate. Gotera’s maternal uncle and another relative were executed by Japanese soldiers who accused them of being spies.
Gotera also recalled an incident of discrimination his father faced after the war. His father, who had risen to the rank of lieutenant, encountered an enlisted man at the Presidio Army base in San Francisco who refused to salute him because he was Filipino.
“My father took off his jacket, hung it on a bush, and ordered the man to salute the uniform he was wearing,” Gotera said. “And he did—again and again.”
Gotera, professor emeritus of English at the University of Northern Iowa, is a former editor of the North American Review and Star Line. His books include Dragons and Rayguns, The Coolest Month, and Flying Kite.
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