PDA

View Full Version : For Gene Spanos -- being a Marine is lifelong commitment



thedrifter
11-06-08, 08:25 AM
For Gene Spanos -- being a Marine is lifelong commitment

November 6, 2008

By ANNE LUNDE alunde@pioneerlocal.com


For Eugene Spanos, a retired Rosemont public safety lieutenant now living in Park Ridge, one of the proudest parts of his life was his service in the United States Marine Corps, which started over 40 years ago.

He served in the 11th Engineers, Third Marine Division, in Vietnam between February 1968 and February 1969, a "full tour." He would return for a second tour in Southeast Asia, including service in Okinawa and on a battalion landing team before he was finally sent home in June 1971. He achieved the rank of E5 --a "buck sergeant" and proud to be one.

He also felt a responsibility for the results of his service. He continues to lobby legislators, on both the national and state levels, to insure that services are not curtailed or limited for veterans who have served their country.

In 1989, he and some of the other engineers learned that the land mines it had been their duty to plant were still turning up in the Vietnam countryside. Often they were discovered by farmers and exploded, injuring civilians -- including children born long after the war ended. After many negotiations with several governments, these Marines arranged to make a trip back to Vietnam to share their information on where they had planted mines, hoping to reduce further injuries.

An American flag, sent by U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, accompanied the team and was raised by them in Khe Sanh.

Spanos also arranged for funding and medical assistance for a young man, then 6 years old, who was without arms and needed surgery and prosthetics. Nghia started college in 2007. One of the Marines will be visiting the young man in Vietnam soon to check on how he is doing.

This year, 15 of the engineers and their wives, gathered in the Chicago area for a mini-reunion for four days in August. Their oldest compatriot was Jack Craig, a vet who served in Korea and Vietnam. The youngest, notes Spanos, is 59 years old.

Spanos presented the Khe Sanh American flag to Mike Wallace of Hutchinson, Kas., one of the Marines who returned in 1989.

A silent auction at the reunion raised $700 towards the new Vietnam Memorial center being built in Washington, D.C., which will house the memorabilia which has been left by friends and families at the Vietnam Wall in D.C., and at the traveling replica walls as they visited communities around the United States. The engineers hope to hold another reunion in 2010, when the center is scheduled to open.

Ellie