The Teaching History Her Way Podcast · CherylAnne Amendola

Thanking Vietnam Veterans with Thy Cavagnaro

·40 min·2 clips

A Vietnam veteran told T. Cavagnaro he was “only sorry that he didn’t kill all of my ancestors first.”

1. The Teaching History Her Way Podcast episode centers on Thanking Vietnam Veterans in Barnegat and T. Cavagnaro’s work with Vietnamese refugee history. 2. Host Sherrilyn Amendola interviews T. Cavagnaro, a Vietnamese refugee, professor, and founder of Thanking Vietnam Veterans in Barnegat. 3. The episode asks how Cavagnaro turns a personal refugee story and Vietnam veteran outreach into classroom teaching. 4. Cavagnaro says the organization began after a Facebook post led a Vietnam veteran to write, “he was only sorry that he didn’t kill all of my ancestors first.” 5. She explains that the attack made her research the Vietnam War and the pain many veterans were still carrying. 6. Cavagnaro and her husband decided to “embrace his identity” and use the experience to send a different message to Vietnam veterans. 7. The organization started in Barnegat with small dinners for local veterans and grew into a monument and annual events. 8. Cavagnaro says she created the only monument in the country for Vietnam veterans fully funded by an individual Vietnamese refugee. 9. Her presentations use analogies, questions, and role-play to help students relate to refugee and veteran experiences. 10. Students list the 10 most important people in their lives on their phones before discussing how phones and private ownership would be restricted under communist rule. 11. She has students stand for the U.S. national anthem, then switch to the South Vietnamese national anthem and Vietnamese language to simulate disorientation. 12. Cavagnaro says these exercises help students avoid “wah, wah, wah” boredom and remember the material. 13. One of the most intense activities asks older students to keep only two names from their list of 10. 14. She then has them imagine saying goodbye to the other eight, which she links to her mother’s escape from Vietnam. 15. Cavagnaro says that exercise has brought many tears in school and adult presentations. 16. She argues that Vietnam veterans were often drafted, returned home to rejection, and then buried their service because of repeated social rejection. 17. Amendola and Cavagnaro discuss why the Vietnam War receives less classroom attention than World War II, the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War. 18. Cavagnaro says the tone stays interactive and personal, with questions, comparisons, and community events built into the format. 19. Listeners interested in Vietnam War teaching, refugee stories, and empathy-based lessons would likely value this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a detached policy discussion of the Vietnam War may skip this one.

As heard by us

A Vietnam War conversation that pairs lived experience with practical classroom strategies.

Sherrilyn Amendola frames the episode around Vietnam War memory, refugee experience, and classroom practice, with T. Cavanaro's account of escaping the fall of Saigon giving the conversation a grounded human center. What stands out most is the teaching angle.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Vietnamese refugee perspective on the Vietnam War that also points you toward classroom use.

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