thedrifter
12-13-05, 07:04 AM
December 13, 2005
Ruth Holladay
Marines take care of their own to the end
December 13, 2005
Michael L. Deaton died Thursday in a nursing home.
He was only 58, but his once strapping 6-foot-1-inch body was a diminished wreck. He was a diabetic. He was a double amputee. He had a bad heart and, just to make life more challenging, he had lung disease.
Despite all that misery, or maybe because of it, Deaton smoked two packs a day and strenuously refused any request to cut back. When one nursing home tried to limit his habit to two smokes every 24 hours, he moved out.
During his lifetime, Deaton sold cars and men's clothing and worked for the state as a veterans' employment counselor. He was a husband three times.
But above all, he was a Marine.
He signed up in 1966 after graduating from Broad Ripple High School. He served 10 years, including a 13-month tour in Vietnam. He was a platoon sergeant and a life member of the Marine Corps League.
When his Marine buddies got word that he had died unexpectedly and that no military send-off was in the works, they got into gear.
"Mike Deaton has died," Donald F. Myers e-mailed Friday to his network. "There is a SNAFU about Mike's status in so far as will the VA pay the $2,000 burial?"
Myers, 71, also a Vietnam vet, was determined to raise the fee if the Department of Veterans Affairs didn't come through. "I know it's Christmastime, but Mike is a Marine, and Marines take care of their own," he said.
Deaton died without money or contact with relatives. The funeral home's position was that it would have to cremate his remains unless someone paid the $2,000 funeral fee.
Cremation wasn't acceptable to Myers, retired Lt. Col. Dan Switzer and Commandant Russ Eaglin of the Marine Corps League of Indianapolis.
They wanted Deaton to rest in the National Cemetery in Marion. They wanted him in a casket with a headstone. They wanted the honor of a service.
After all, Deaton gave 10 years of his life to his country. Or maybe he gave his whole life.
Like many other Vietnam vets, he was exposed to Agent Orange. The VA, as a result of action by Congress in the 1990s, pays disability to veterans with diseases linked to the toxic herbicide. Diabetes is among them.
Deaton was 100 percent disabled. Complications from diabetes cost him his legs in 1993. The amputations, at his knees, affected his heart.
You might think Deaton was bitter. "He died in Vietnam; he just didn't know it," is said of veterans whose lives unraveled.
That wasn't Deaton, his friends said. He was happy-go-lucky.
He loved to eat and drink and smoke. He was active in the league until his disabilities made it impossible. He wanted to live.
Myers explains the ethos of the Marine Corps, that perhaps applied to Deaton. "In the face of adversity, we seem to shine brighter."
Knowing that, you won't be surprised to hear that the Marines took care of business. Myers made some phone calls, and the VA will pay for Deaton's funeral at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Marion National Cemetery.
The Marines will be there to bury their own.
Ellie
Ruth Holladay
Marines take care of their own to the end
December 13, 2005
Michael L. Deaton died Thursday in a nursing home.
He was only 58, but his once strapping 6-foot-1-inch body was a diminished wreck. He was a diabetic. He was a double amputee. He had a bad heart and, just to make life more challenging, he had lung disease.
Despite all that misery, or maybe because of it, Deaton smoked two packs a day and strenuously refused any request to cut back. When one nursing home tried to limit his habit to two smokes every 24 hours, he moved out.
During his lifetime, Deaton sold cars and men's clothing and worked for the state as a veterans' employment counselor. He was a husband three times.
But above all, he was a Marine.
He signed up in 1966 after graduating from Broad Ripple High School. He served 10 years, including a 13-month tour in Vietnam. He was a platoon sergeant and a life member of the Marine Corps League.
When his Marine buddies got word that he had died unexpectedly and that no military send-off was in the works, they got into gear.
"Mike Deaton has died," Donald F. Myers e-mailed Friday to his network. "There is a SNAFU about Mike's status in so far as will the VA pay the $2,000 burial?"
Myers, 71, also a Vietnam vet, was determined to raise the fee if the Department of Veterans Affairs didn't come through. "I know it's Christmastime, but Mike is a Marine, and Marines take care of their own," he said.
Deaton died without money or contact with relatives. The funeral home's position was that it would have to cremate his remains unless someone paid the $2,000 funeral fee.
Cremation wasn't acceptable to Myers, retired Lt. Col. Dan Switzer and Commandant Russ Eaglin of the Marine Corps League of Indianapolis.
They wanted Deaton to rest in the National Cemetery in Marion. They wanted him in a casket with a headstone. They wanted the honor of a service.
After all, Deaton gave 10 years of his life to his country. Or maybe he gave his whole life.
Like many other Vietnam vets, he was exposed to Agent Orange. The VA, as a result of action by Congress in the 1990s, pays disability to veterans with diseases linked to the toxic herbicide. Diabetes is among them.
Deaton was 100 percent disabled. Complications from diabetes cost him his legs in 1993. The amputations, at his knees, affected his heart.
You might think Deaton was bitter. "He died in Vietnam; he just didn't know it," is said of veterans whose lives unraveled.
That wasn't Deaton, his friends said. He was happy-go-lucky.
He loved to eat and drink and smoke. He was active in the league until his disabilities made it impossible. He wanted to live.
Myers explains the ethos of the Marine Corps, that perhaps applied to Deaton. "In the face of adversity, we seem to shine brighter."
Knowing that, you won't be surprised to hear that the Marines took care of business. Myers made some phone calls, and the VA will pay for Deaton's funeral at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Marion National Cemetery.
The Marines will be there to bury their own.
Ellie