Mother of downed pilot finds peace helping people in Vietnam

On Jan. 6, 1969, The Bellingham Herald published an engagement photo of U.S. Army Lt. Daniel Cheney, whose parents lived just north of Bellingham, and Gail Higgins, a student at then-Western Washington State College.
Bernard and Rae Cheney lived near Bellingham when their son, Daniel Cheney, shown in this undated photo, was killed in 1969 while flying a Cobra helicopter in Vietnam.

The same day and half a world away, Cheney and his co-pilot died in Vietnam when their helicopter was hit while providing cover fire for a downed pilot. Cheney was 21 years old.

"That has to be the most tragic, devastating experience a mother can ever have, to lose a child," said Rae Cheney, his mother. "There are no words to describe it."

Cheney now lives on Bainbridge Island. She moved there in 1994, after her husband died, to be near her youngest daughter, Jerilyn Brusseau.

Dan was the youngest of three Cheney children, and the only boy. Heartbroken over his death, his mother searched for some reason to reach out, to contribute in a positive way.

Brusseau offered her mother a path to healing in 1995, the year the United States normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Brusseau had been active for years in efforts to foster international accord. Ever since the death of her brother, she knew she wanted to do something to help people in Vietnam.

When diplomacy reopened doors there, she and her husband started PeaceTrees Vietnam, a nonprofit program that removes landmines and other unexploded ordinance in Vietnam and replants the cleared land with trees.

Early on, Brusseau asked her mother to write thank-you notes to the program's donors.

"She said, 'All right, I can do that,'" Brusseau said. "She's still doing it."

Over the years, Rae Cheney, now 89, joined her daughter on the program's board of directors, and has written and addressed by hand an estimated 8,000 thank-you notes.

"It did not heal a broken heart," she said, "but it did give me a purpose."

Cheney now speaks publicly about the need for reconciliation with the people of Vietnam, and on Sept. 5 will fly to Vietnam, for the first time, for the dedication of a school named for her son and a library named for her.

"Her story is transforming sorrow into service," Brusseau said. "She's become a spokesperson on behalf of healing."

MOVED TO WHATCOM COUNTY

Rae Cheney and her husband, Bernard "Bun" Cheney, grew up in Montana. After World War II, they lived in Snohomish and Vancouver, Wash., before moving to Bellingham in 1965 when her husband, a state worker, was assigned to oversee livestock auctions in Everson, Lynden and points south.

She worked in Bellingham as a head teller at National Bank of Commerce, and later trained workers at Bellingham National Bank.

Dan visited Bellingham, but didn't live here. He graduated from high school in Vancouver and attended community college there before enlisting in the Army.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Dan would be a lifer today," his mother said.

In 1996, Brusseau and her husband prepared to lead PeaceTrees' first delegation to Vietnam, but he died suddenly before departure. Rae Cheney wanted to help her grieving daughter, but wasn't emotionally ready to join her in Vietnam. So she gave her daughter Dan's commendation medals, to be buried beneath the first tree planted in Vietnam.

PeaceTrees focuses its work in Quang Tri Province. Located in the narrow middle of the country, it used to be northernmost province of South Vietnam.

"It's considered the most severely bombed territory in the history of the world," Brusseau said.

So far, PeaceTrees has removed nearly 50,000 landmines and other ordinance from more than 300 acres, and has planted more than 40,000 trees. To further help residents of the region, PeaceTrees has erected a village for 100 people, supports health care and other services, and has built four kindergartens and eight libraries.

The fifth kindergarten and ninth library - the ones to be named for Dan and Rae Cheney - are nearing completion and will be dedicated Sept. 10. About 15 people plan to make the trip.

"People are so thrilled that mom is going," Brusseau said.

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