thedrifter
04-20-07, 06:39 AM
Marine gets Silver Star 40 years late
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON -- It came 40 years late. But a 60-year-old Los Angeles-area man said Thursday that he was grateful to finally receive the Silver Star award he earned during a Vietnam War battle in 1966.
Wearing a gold tie and a blue blazer buttoned at the bottom, former Marine Sgt. Joe Getherall sat in the front row next to his wife of 40 years, Chieko, during a midday outdoor ceremony at Camp Pendleton to mark the long-delayed occasion. He then walked forward several paces so that Col. James B. Seaton III, Camp Pendleton's commanding officer, could pin the medal and a Purple Heart on his coat.
The Silver Star is the third-highest award for a Marine who served in combat with valor.
"There's an obvious question here: Why did it take so long -- over 40 years?" Seaton said, as he addressed a crowd of about 100 that included Getherall's family, his former co-workers on the Los Angeles Police Department and uniformed Marines.
"I don't know," Seaton continued. "I sure don't have an answer on a sunny Southern California day in the communications era."
No one knows for sure why the award fell through the cracks until four decades after the Marine's superior nominated him for wartime heroics, said Gary Loveridge, Getherall's former platoon commander.
It might have been because of the company commander's death a month later. It would have been the commander's responsibility to transfer the paperwork to the right person back in the United States, he said.
"We're in combat. We're out in the middle of nowhere and we're being shot at every night," said Loveridge, who is now an attorney in Davis. "And you go on and fight the war. You don't worry about the paperwork."
But there was no denying that it was an award well deserved, Seaton said, apologizing for the Corps' failure to honor Getherall earlier.
"Joe, your actions on the battlefield that day, and the actions of others like you, are what led me to join the Marine Corps," Seaton said.
According to the Silver Star citation signed by Navy Secretary Donald Winter, Getherall was a squad leader with Company M, Third Battalion, 26th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, when the squad came under intense automatic weapons and mortar fire during the dark early morning hours of Dec. 22, 1966.
Directing his men, Getherall refused to abandon them after being seriously wounded in both legs and an arm by an exploding mortar round, according to the citation.
Three or four hours later, Getherall said he jumped on a grenade thrown by the enemy, then picked it up and hurled it back.
"I had just gotten rid of it when it went off," Getherall said after Thursday's ceremony.
During the ceremony, Getherall talked about the battle.
"The best thing that happened to me that night was getting wounded early in the battle, because it really, really, really, really ****ed me off," he said. "That caused me to go on pure adrenaline for the rest of the battle."
In concluding his remarks, Getherall focused on the men who served by his side.
"I'm accepting the Silver Star on behalf of my squad," he said, pausing and fighting back tears, "because they were the true heroes that night."
Thanks to a handful of former squad members, Getherall's heroics that night did not go unnoticed forever.
Upon his retirement in 1996 as a Los Angeles police detective, Getherall took advantage of his acquired investigative skills to track down squad members. Several gathered for a reunion in 2004. Loveridge was there, and he became upset when he learned the award had never arrived.
Getherall's three children, ages 38, 35 and 28, didn't even know their father had done something deserving of such an award.
"For almost all of my life, we never talked about the war. We never talked about Vietnam," said daughter Anna Hubert, 38, who also lives in the Los Angeles area.
"My friends didn't know, either," said Getherall, who grew up in a tough neighborhood in South Boston and dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. "It's hard to talk about that kind of stuff. It's like a woman talking about childbirth. There's no way they could possibly understand."
But Getherall is not bitter. Indeed, it turned out better that the award was delayed, he said.
"My whole life would have been different," he said. "They would have sent me back to the States and I never would have met my wife."
-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON -- It came 40 years late. But a 60-year-old Los Angeles-area man said Thursday that he was grateful to finally receive the Silver Star award he earned during a Vietnam War battle in 1966.
Wearing a gold tie and a blue blazer buttoned at the bottom, former Marine Sgt. Joe Getherall sat in the front row next to his wife of 40 years, Chieko, during a midday outdoor ceremony at Camp Pendleton to mark the long-delayed occasion. He then walked forward several paces so that Col. James B. Seaton III, Camp Pendleton's commanding officer, could pin the medal and a Purple Heart on his coat.
The Silver Star is the third-highest award for a Marine who served in combat with valor.
"There's an obvious question here: Why did it take so long -- over 40 years?" Seaton said, as he addressed a crowd of about 100 that included Getherall's family, his former co-workers on the Los Angeles Police Department and uniformed Marines.
"I don't know," Seaton continued. "I sure don't have an answer on a sunny Southern California day in the communications era."
No one knows for sure why the award fell through the cracks until four decades after the Marine's superior nominated him for wartime heroics, said Gary Loveridge, Getherall's former platoon commander.
It might have been because of the company commander's death a month later. It would have been the commander's responsibility to transfer the paperwork to the right person back in the United States, he said.
"We're in combat. We're out in the middle of nowhere and we're being shot at every night," said Loveridge, who is now an attorney in Davis. "And you go on and fight the war. You don't worry about the paperwork."
But there was no denying that it was an award well deserved, Seaton said, apologizing for the Corps' failure to honor Getherall earlier.
"Joe, your actions on the battlefield that day, and the actions of others like you, are what led me to join the Marine Corps," Seaton said.
According to the Silver Star citation signed by Navy Secretary Donald Winter, Getherall was a squad leader with Company M, Third Battalion, 26th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, when the squad came under intense automatic weapons and mortar fire during the dark early morning hours of Dec. 22, 1966.
Directing his men, Getherall refused to abandon them after being seriously wounded in both legs and an arm by an exploding mortar round, according to the citation.
Three or four hours later, Getherall said he jumped on a grenade thrown by the enemy, then picked it up and hurled it back.
"I had just gotten rid of it when it went off," Getherall said after Thursday's ceremony.
During the ceremony, Getherall talked about the battle.
"The best thing that happened to me that night was getting wounded early in the battle, because it really, really, really, really ****ed me off," he said. "That caused me to go on pure adrenaline for the rest of the battle."
In concluding his remarks, Getherall focused on the men who served by his side.
"I'm accepting the Silver Star on behalf of my squad," he said, pausing and fighting back tears, "because they were the true heroes that night."
Thanks to a handful of former squad members, Getherall's heroics that night did not go unnoticed forever.
Upon his retirement in 1996 as a Los Angeles police detective, Getherall took advantage of his acquired investigative skills to track down squad members. Several gathered for a reunion in 2004. Loveridge was there, and he became upset when he learned the award had never arrived.
Getherall's three children, ages 38, 35 and 28, didn't even know their father had done something deserving of such an award.
"For almost all of my life, we never talked about the war. We never talked about Vietnam," said daughter Anna Hubert, 38, who also lives in the Los Angeles area.
"My friends didn't know, either," said Getherall, who grew up in a tough neighborhood in South Boston and dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. "It's hard to talk about that kind of stuff. It's like a woman talking about childbirth. There's no way they could possibly understand."
But Getherall is not bitter. Indeed, it turned out better that the award was delayed, he said.
"My whole life would have been different," he said. "They would have sent me back to the States and I never would have met my wife."
-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.
Ellie