Bob Reiter to present 2 water buffalo to farmer as peacemaking gesture

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer
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First published: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

TROY -- Bob Reiter has some guilt he will try to ease over the next two weeks on a mission to a former killing zone.

Reiter, a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran and director of the Rensselaer County Veterans Service Agency, served as a door gunner on a UH-1 Huey helicopter in the late 1960s in a northern area of South Vietnam.

He was in the middle of some of the worst fighting.

"I have some demons I must deal with, and I am going to return to the country to try," Reiter said.

Reiter left earlier this month with his wife and some other Vietnam veterans for a two-week stay in the country and is expecting to return around Thursday.

"It's been 37 years since I was there, and I am scared to death about this," Reiter said. "I have no idea how I'm going to feel about it or how I'm going to be accepted"

In advance of the trip, Reiter arranged for the purchase of two water buffalo, a very valuable commodity for poor farmers in Vietnam. He will present the working animals to a farmer in a small village near Marble Mountain.

"The buffaloes are significant for me because, as a door gunner back then, we used to practice on them," Reiter said.

It was in the Marble Mountain region that Reiter's helicopter was shot down in 1970.

"I remember nothing but waking up in Okinawa," Reiter said.

Reiter of Stephentown, 54, became director of veterans affairs in 1999 after retiring from the post office.

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