thedrifter
08-30-09, 07:19 AM
Web Posted: 08/30/2009 12:00 CDT
Marines hardened by war battles reunite
By Sig Christenson - Express-News
He was a young Marine on a 1963 mission so secret that no one knew where they were going until after putting out to sea.
Rich Lantz was on the ground floor of the Vietnam War. He and his best friend, Lance Cpl. Dino Denardo, fought the Viet Cong while fellow Marines mapped beaches and inland areas off Highway 1.
They came home and lost contact, but Lantz, 65, of Fairmount City, Pa., still feels such love for Denardo that he broke down while talking about him recently.
“You get so damned tight, it's unbelievable,” he said. “When you can close your eyes and your buddy's guarding your back, you know what I'm saying? And you know that he can close his eyes and you're guarding his back.”
A band of Marine Corps veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam met last week in San Antonio. Don't call them ex-Marines. They fought different enemies over the years but share common experiences and core truths, the first being that war is a brotherhood forged in fear, anger and the fight for life.
They've endured hypervigilance, alienation, heavy drinking and fitful sleep after coming home.
Despite the constant risk and trauma, or perhaps because of it, war is the highlight of their lives.
And now, decades later, old wounds heal over beer and Tex-Mex at gatherings such as the 55th annual 3rd Marine Division Association Family Reunion.
Retired letter carrier Ward Downey, who came to Vietnam a private first class, was hit by shrapnel May 2, July 4 and Aug. 9, 1966.
“When I got back home, I tried to drink Vietnam away,” said Downey, 61, of Topeka, Kan., noting that he had nightmares for decades. “I couldn't drink it away, I couldn't smoke it away. I couldn't do enough drugs to make it go away.”
Bob Goodson, shot in one knee in the 1965 Dominican Republic incursion and in the back in Vietnam, was hypervigilant. He slept with a .45-caliber pistol under his bed for years and battled the bottle, sobering up in 1973.
“I didn't have an angry personality. I was just annoyed,” said Goodson, 66, of Des Moines, Iowa. “I left my friends in Vietnam.”
Retired quality control engineer Ron Smith served in a rifle company in Korea at 16 after lying about his age. He entered the University of Houston on the GI Bill after the war, but Korea shadowed him.
“There was a long time when I would go for a walk in a park or something and I'm looking. I'm looking where would be a possible ambush site,” said Smith, 74, of Houston.
“It's hard to make friends,” said Jerry Willis, 63, of Midland, Ga. He was evacuated from Vietnam in 1968 after being wounded. “You can't talk about it because you can't talk to somebody who hasn't experienced it because they don't understand.”
A lance corporal, Thurman Clark, 85, of Adrian, Mich., and his band of scouts used dogs to sniff out Japanese troops in Guam and Okinawa. He lost both hands in an industrial accident, but the war still looms large.
“You're risking your life with your buddies, fighting for what you believe in," he said.
That is true for Lantz, the Marine from Pennsylvania. Then a 19-year-old lance corporal from Punxsutawney, he was on an adventure, wearing no rank insignia or other identification — and he didn't have to ask why. Years later, Lantz began having post-traumatic stress issues after a car accident victim drew a knife on him and another EMT.
“I was OK for 40 years, and then to have that happen. I can't come out of it,” said Lantz, a new face at this year's reunion. “I joined the Marine Corps League, and I'm just getting activated in this. I think this is helping, being around other Marines.”
Downey calls the problem delayed stress. He began therapy in early 1983 after visiting the Vietnam Wall, and is still on anxiety and sleep medication. The war crosses his mind pretty much every day. He isn't alone.
Georgia's Willis, who came home a recluse, said, “I think of guys I was with, guys I lost. Good friends.”
At this reunion, the Marines have Lantz's and Willis' backs, just as they did long ago. Downey sees it as a first step in healing, but there's a ways to go.
“It's finally forced them to open their eyes and say, ‘Wow. No wonder I've been the way I've been for 40 years,'” he said. “But the new guys who start showing up now at these reunions. ... I warn them before, ‘Be careful when you go home, because you're not going to be the same for awhile.'”
Ellie
Marines hardened by war battles reunite
By Sig Christenson - Express-News
He was a young Marine on a 1963 mission so secret that no one knew where they were going until after putting out to sea.
Rich Lantz was on the ground floor of the Vietnam War. He and his best friend, Lance Cpl. Dino Denardo, fought the Viet Cong while fellow Marines mapped beaches and inland areas off Highway 1.
They came home and lost contact, but Lantz, 65, of Fairmount City, Pa., still feels such love for Denardo that he broke down while talking about him recently.
“You get so damned tight, it's unbelievable,” he said. “When you can close your eyes and your buddy's guarding your back, you know what I'm saying? And you know that he can close his eyes and you're guarding his back.”
A band of Marine Corps veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam met last week in San Antonio. Don't call them ex-Marines. They fought different enemies over the years but share common experiences and core truths, the first being that war is a brotherhood forged in fear, anger and the fight for life.
They've endured hypervigilance, alienation, heavy drinking and fitful sleep after coming home.
Despite the constant risk and trauma, or perhaps because of it, war is the highlight of their lives.
And now, decades later, old wounds heal over beer and Tex-Mex at gatherings such as the 55th annual 3rd Marine Division Association Family Reunion.
Retired letter carrier Ward Downey, who came to Vietnam a private first class, was hit by shrapnel May 2, July 4 and Aug. 9, 1966.
“When I got back home, I tried to drink Vietnam away,” said Downey, 61, of Topeka, Kan., noting that he had nightmares for decades. “I couldn't drink it away, I couldn't smoke it away. I couldn't do enough drugs to make it go away.”
Bob Goodson, shot in one knee in the 1965 Dominican Republic incursion and in the back in Vietnam, was hypervigilant. He slept with a .45-caliber pistol under his bed for years and battled the bottle, sobering up in 1973.
“I didn't have an angry personality. I was just annoyed,” said Goodson, 66, of Des Moines, Iowa. “I left my friends in Vietnam.”
Retired quality control engineer Ron Smith served in a rifle company in Korea at 16 after lying about his age. He entered the University of Houston on the GI Bill after the war, but Korea shadowed him.
“There was a long time when I would go for a walk in a park or something and I'm looking. I'm looking where would be a possible ambush site,” said Smith, 74, of Houston.
“It's hard to make friends,” said Jerry Willis, 63, of Midland, Ga. He was evacuated from Vietnam in 1968 after being wounded. “You can't talk about it because you can't talk to somebody who hasn't experienced it because they don't understand.”
A lance corporal, Thurman Clark, 85, of Adrian, Mich., and his band of scouts used dogs to sniff out Japanese troops in Guam and Okinawa. He lost both hands in an industrial accident, but the war still looms large.
“You're risking your life with your buddies, fighting for what you believe in," he said.
That is true for Lantz, the Marine from Pennsylvania. Then a 19-year-old lance corporal from Punxsutawney, he was on an adventure, wearing no rank insignia or other identification — and he didn't have to ask why. Years later, Lantz began having post-traumatic stress issues after a car accident victim drew a knife on him and another EMT.
“I was OK for 40 years, and then to have that happen. I can't come out of it,” said Lantz, a new face at this year's reunion. “I joined the Marine Corps League, and I'm just getting activated in this. I think this is helping, being around other Marines.”
Downey calls the problem delayed stress. He began therapy in early 1983 after visiting the Vietnam Wall, and is still on anxiety and sleep medication. The war crosses his mind pretty much every day. He isn't alone.
Georgia's Willis, who came home a recluse, said, “I think of guys I was with, guys I lost. Good friends.”
At this reunion, the Marines have Lantz's and Willis' backs, just as they did long ago. Downey sees it as a first step in healing, but there's a ways to go.
“It's finally forced them to open their eyes and say, ‘Wow. No wonder I've been the way I've been for 40 years,'” he said. “But the new guys who start showing up now at these reunions. ... I warn them before, ‘Be careful when you go home, because you're not going to be the same for awhile.'”
Ellie