Tears welled in Col. Patricia Blassie’s eyes as Ken Greene introduced himself as her late brother’s roommate in Vietnam.

On May 11, 1972, two days after Greene moved out, 1st Lt. Michael Blassie’s plane was shot down about 60 miles north of Saigon.

Blassie was one of 150 Air Force Academy graduates killed in Vietnam, the first war academy alumni were sent to. Friday, the Class of 1970 unveiled its generous gift to the military academy, a $1 million memorial dedicated to those fallen Vietnam fighters and the legacy of the Air Force in Southeast Asia.

“For us, it once again brings to light how important the people are who serve,” Patricia Blassie said of the memorial’s significance to her family. “As for my brother Michael, for a long time we didn’t know where he was and he didn’t have his name on a memorial.”

The Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion sits just northwest of Doolittle Hall and features a large room with two glass walls, showing a view of the Academy Chapel and cadet area. On one of the walls, an 800-pound bronze map of southeast Asia, complete with a detailed view of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and all U.S. and enemy bases. The map was sculpted by 1971 graduate Jim Nance, who flew the last plane of POWs out of Vietnam in 1974.

Outside, on black granite walls mirrored after the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., members of the classes of 1959 to 1972  who died in Vietnam are memorialized on bronze plaques. The class of 1965 took the biggest hit in the war, with 19 graduates killed.

“It will be a reminder to our cadets of those who served before them,” said Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould.

The dedication coincided with the class of 1970’s 40th reunion this weekend. Of the 745 who graduated, more than 320 class members are attending the weekend’s events, many of them donors to the memorial project.

“It was a difficult struggle. It wasn’t a popular war. And each and every one of us went and did as our country asked,” Greene said.

Air Force class of 1970 graduate John Russ salutes the nine classmates who died in the Vietnam War during the dedication of the Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Oct. 1, 2010. The plaques on the wall honored the classmates from 1959 to 1972 who were killed during the war. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock) Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Christian murdock