thedrifter
07-09-03, 12:34 PM
o long gone, so long...Unforgotten
By:Mark Lomasney
Special to the News-Herald
07/09/2003
Ripples from Vietnam War are still felt
"And I wonder who that kid was standing brave & trim,
And I hear myself breathe and I know that I was him.
Defender of the poor and those who cannot speak,
I thought I'd be standing by the dam trying to stop the leak.
Stand & be counted, stand on the truth,
Stand on your honor, stand & be counted."
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
In the Sudan during the Franco-Prussian War in the 19th century, the young French Cavalry attacked the new-age artillery of the Germans in wave after wave of senseless charges.
Viewing the carnage, the king of Prussia lowered his spyglass and murmured to his aide, "Haah! ... Les brave gens."
The United States, too, sent its "brave young men" against the guns of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army during the 1960s and '70s in an attempt to stop the spread of communism in southeast Asia.
From nation to state to county to community, the United States called upon its native sons to take up arms to defend democracy and liberate the oppressed.
In this case, it was a Third World country thousands of miles away in a place few Americans had ever heard of - South Vietnam.
This is a series about the families of 15 young men from the nurserylands of Mentor, who undertook their country's call to arms. They all fought and died in Vietnam.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother."
- William Shakespeare,
Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3
The first to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country was Marine Lance Cpl. Paul "Mike" Mitchell, on Oct. 5, 1966.
Mitchell "was a Marine before he joined the Marines," said Gene Branem, his neighbor and best friend.
"Mike was one tough kid who could be the best friend you ever had or your worst enemy, but if he was your friend, his loyalty was unquestioned," he said.
An accomplished American Legion baseball player, Mitchell was being scouted by the Cleveland Indians. He was bored in school, however, and found his niche after joining the Marines in 1966 and becoming a military policeman in Portsmouth, N.H.
Mitchell would later volunteer for combat duty so a fellow Marine with a wife and children would not have to serve.
Little more than a month after his arrival in Vietnam, he was killed with a bullet wound to the chest. He was awarded the Silver Star for carrying his commanding officer out of the line of fire.
His memory has been kept alive at Mentor High School each spring with the Paul "Mike" Mitchell Most Valuable Player award for baseball.
* * *
The second from Mentor was Marine Pfc. Jack Logan, who died at a place called the Rockpile in the Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam.
Logan, 23, was among 16 Marines killed in December 1966 near the Cambodian border when a plane dropped several 500-pound bombs on a Rockpile hillside, where they ricocheted off shale and fell upon his reconnaissance patrol in the jungle below.
"He was a live wire: handsome, athletic, full of spirit," recalled Jon Coatoam, a high school classmate, best friend and college roommate.
"Jack was a top-notch wrestler at 135 pounds, but could bench-press almost 190. He was co-captain of the wrestling team his senior year in 1961, and Jack also played football, baseball and track."
He married high school sweetheart Alisa Dice in 1962 and attended Ohio University, intending to major in chemistry. He later left school and worked as a lab technician.
Then in February 1966, he joined the Marines, where he was assigned as a scout in S-2 intelligence.
The day before he was killed, Logan rescued Cpl. Ken Garthee, a Marine wounded in the chest during an ambush on a place called Razorback Ridge. He dragged Garthee to safety while returning fire with his M-16.
Logan wrapped Garthee in a poncho and transported him down the hills and ridges in darkness. When a chopper eventually arrived, Logan loaded Garthee inside.
The next day, Logan was killed accidentally by "friendly fire."
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell
On May 26, 1967, Marine Cpl. James Menart, 19, who left Mentor Schools in 1965, was next to die, followed by Army Spc. 4 Lloyd Sellers, 21, a Euclid High School graduate, who was killed in May 1967 by machine gun crossfire in the Mekong Delta.
Sellers was married to the former Sandra Clark and had a 4-month-old son, Denny Lloyd, living in Mentor.
The next month, Army Spc. 4th Class Howard Mucha, 22, who had attended Mentor Schools in his youth, died as a result of mortar fire at Lai Khe, South Vietnam, while preparing a defense perimeter for a landing zone during a firefight.
The sixth and seventh casualties of the war with Mentor ties both died in April 1968.
Lt. j.g. Stuart McLellan, 25, piloting an Orion PC3 reconnaissance plane, was shot down over the Gulf of Thailand on April 1. Army Sgt. Lloyd E. Stroisch, 22, succumbed April 12 to wounds he had received near the Cambodian border as a door gunner on a Huey helicopter.
* * *
With the Tet Offensive in full swing, two more popular native sons - Dean Nicholas and Timothy Stickle, ages 21 and 19, respectively - died in southeast Asia.
Dean Edward Nicholas was particularly well-known because then-News-Herald Staff Writer David W. Jones had written a four-part story following him through Marine boot camp.
continued
By:Mark Lomasney
Special to the News-Herald
07/09/2003
Ripples from Vietnam War are still felt
"And I wonder who that kid was standing brave & trim,
And I hear myself breathe and I know that I was him.
Defender of the poor and those who cannot speak,
I thought I'd be standing by the dam trying to stop the leak.
Stand & be counted, stand on the truth,
Stand on your honor, stand & be counted."
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
In the Sudan during the Franco-Prussian War in the 19th century, the young French Cavalry attacked the new-age artillery of the Germans in wave after wave of senseless charges.
Viewing the carnage, the king of Prussia lowered his spyglass and murmured to his aide, "Haah! ... Les brave gens."
The United States, too, sent its "brave young men" against the guns of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army during the 1960s and '70s in an attempt to stop the spread of communism in southeast Asia.
From nation to state to county to community, the United States called upon its native sons to take up arms to defend democracy and liberate the oppressed.
In this case, it was a Third World country thousands of miles away in a place few Americans had ever heard of - South Vietnam.
This is a series about the families of 15 young men from the nurserylands of Mentor, who undertook their country's call to arms. They all fought and died in Vietnam.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother."
- William Shakespeare,
Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3
The first to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country was Marine Lance Cpl. Paul "Mike" Mitchell, on Oct. 5, 1966.
Mitchell "was a Marine before he joined the Marines," said Gene Branem, his neighbor and best friend.
"Mike was one tough kid who could be the best friend you ever had or your worst enemy, but if he was your friend, his loyalty was unquestioned," he said.
An accomplished American Legion baseball player, Mitchell was being scouted by the Cleveland Indians. He was bored in school, however, and found his niche after joining the Marines in 1966 and becoming a military policeman in Portsmouth, N.H.
Mitchell would later volunteer for combat duty so a fellow Marine with a wife and children would not have to serve.
Little more than a month after his arrival in Vietnam, he was killed with a bullet wound to the chest. He was awarded the Silver Star for carrying his commanding officer out of the line of fire.
His memory has been kept alive at Mentor High School each spring with the Paul "Mike" Mitchell Most Valuable Player award for baseball.
* * *
The second from Mentor was Marine Pfc. Jack Logan, who died at a place called the Rockpile in the Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam.
Logan, 23, was among 16 Marines killed in December 1966 near the Cambodian border when a plane dropped several 500-pound bombs on a Rockpile hillside, where they ricocheted off shale and fell upon his reconnaissance patrol in the jungle below.
"He was a live wire: handsome, athletic, full of spirit," recalled Jon Coatoam, a high school classmate, best friend and college roommate.
"Jack was a top-notch wrestler at 135 pounds, but could bench-press almost 190. He was co-captain of the wrestling team his senior year in 1961, and Jack also played football, baseball and track."
He married high school sweetheart Alisa Dice in 1962 and attended Ohio University, intending to major in chemistry. He later left school and worked as a lab technician.
Then in February 1966, he joined the Marines, where he was assigned as a scout in S-2 intelligence.
The day before he was killed, Logan rescued Cpl. Ken Garthee, a Marine wounded in the chest during an ambush on a place called Razorback Ridge. He dragged Garthee to safety while returning fire with his M-16.
Logan wrapped Garthee in a poncho and transported him down the hills and ridges in darkness. When a chopper eventually arrived, Logan loaded Garthee inside.
The next day, Logan was killed accidentally by "friendly fire."
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell
On May 26, 1967, Marine Cpl. James Menart, 19, who left Mentor Schools in 1965, was next to die, followed by Army Spc. 4 Lloyd Sellers, 21, a Euclid High School graduate, who was killed in May 1967 by machine gun crossfire in the Mekong Delta.
Sellers was married to the former Sandra Clark and had a 4-month-old son, Denny Lloyd, living in Mentor.
The next month, Army Spc. 4th Class Howard Mucha, 22, who had attended Mentor Schools in his youth, died as a result of mortar fire at Lai Khe, South Vietnam, while preparing a defense perimeter for a landing zone during a firefight.
The sixth and seventh casualties of the war with Mentor ties both died in April 1968.
Lt. j.g. Stuart McLellan, 25, piloting an Orion PC3 reconnaissance plane, was shot down over the Gulf of Thailand on April 1. Army Sgt. Lloyd E. Stroisch, 22, succumbed April 12 to wounds he had received near the Cambodian border as a door gunner on a Huey helicopter.
* * *
With the Tet Offensive in full swing, two more popular native sons - Dean Nicholas and Timothy Stickle, ages 21 and 19, respectively - died in southeast Asia.
Dean Edward Nicholas was particularly well-known because then-News-Herald Staff Writer David W. Jones had written a four-part story following him through Marine boot camp.
continued