thedrifter
05-26-09, 08:14 AM
May 26, 2009
Vietnam veterans recall fallen comrades at Memorial Day pancake breakfast
BY GERALD CARROLL
gcarroll@visalia.gannett.com
Chris Jarvis, 64, came a long way for the Central Valley Vietnam Veterans Club Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast on Monday.
"We all need to stick together, no matter how far apart we might be," said Jarvis, who hails from Orland, a north Sacramento Valley farm community.
One of the founders of the 37-member club, which reunites in Tulare almost every Memorial Day, Jarvis is a former U.S. Marine who served in the legendary 1st Battalion 9th Marines, known as the "Walking Dead," Jarvis said.
"That unit sustained the highest killed-in-action rate in Marine Corps history," Jarvis said. Records show that, between July 1965 and October 1966, the 1st Battalion 9th Marines sustained an astonishing 93.63 percent killed in action ' 747 killed out of 800 in the battalion, with two listed as missing in action.
Memorial Day, therefore, is especially personal for Jarvis and others who served in the Walking Dead during Vietnam.
"I remember a lance corporal, Nicholas Koehler, who had become one of my good friends," said Jarvis, who served with the unit in 1965-66 in the hottest early portion of the Vietnam conflict. "He was cut down in our first engagement."
Leader of the local club, former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, Evert Morgan, 64, of Lindsay said the Memorial Day breakfast idea is in its second year after being on the shelf for a while.
"This is in ideal time for club members to reunite," Morgan said. "It was great to bring this [breakfast] back."
Some members came close to joining their deceased brethren on the battlefields of Vietnam, including Albert Flores, 64, of Tulare who was a sergeant in the U.S. Army on a search-and-destroy mission one day in Vietnam.
"Sergeant Otis Louis was a man I admired," said Flores, referring to one of his fellow soldiers on that fateful mission. "A 105-millimeter shell exploded right in the middle of us. Sergeant Otis was killed and all I got was a nick on my ankle. I didn't even report it."
Flores said that Sgt. Louis "trained all of us."
"Had it not been for Sergeant Louis I would have never made in through Vietnam," Flores said.
Because of incidents like these, Memorial Day is much more than just an extra day to have a picnic or barbecue with family and friends, said Cruz Juarez, 60, also a U.S. Army veteran.
"One of my closest friends was John Angel Garza of Porterville," Juarez said. "We were both in the 101st Airborne. I lost him in 1970 when he died in combat. He took a direct hit from an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] and machine-gun fire."
The best way to remember these soldiers, Jarvis said, is to emphasize the way they lived, not the way they died.
"That's what can get us through all these Memorial Days," he said.
Ellie
Vietnam veterans recall fallen comrades at Memorial Day pancake breakfast
BY GERALD CARROLL
gcarroll@visalia.gannett.com
Chris Jarvis, 64, came a long way for the Central Valley Vietnam Veterans Club Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast on Monday.
"We all need to stick together, no matter how far apart we might be," said Jarvis, who hails from Orland, a north Sacramento Valley farm community.
One of the founders of the 37-member club, which reunites in Tulare almost every Memorial Day, Jarvis is a former U.S. Marine who served in the legendary 1st Battalion 9th Marines, known as the "Walking Dead," Jarvis said.
"That unit sustained the highest killed-in-action rate in Marine Corps history," Jarvis said. Records show that, between July 1965 and October 1966, the 1st Battalion 9th Marines sustained an astonishing 93.63 percent killed in action ' 747 killed out of 800 in the battalion, with two listed as missing in action.
Memorial Day, therefore, is especially personal for Jarvis and others who served in the Walking Dead during Vietnam.
"I remember a lance corporal, Nicholas Koehler, who had become one of my good friends," said Jarvis, who served with the unit in 1965-66 in the hottest early portion of the Vietnam conflict. "He was cut down in our first engagement."
Leader of the local club, former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, Evert Morgan, 64, of Lindsay said the Memorial Day breakfast idea is in its second year after being on the shelf for a while.
"This is in ideal time for club members to reunite," Morgan said. "It was great to bring this [breakfast] back."
Some members came close to joining their deceased brethren on the battlefields of Vietnam, including Albert Flores, 64, of Tulare who was a sergeant in the U.S. Army on a search-and-destroy mission one day in Vietnam.
"Sergeant Otis Louis was a man I admired," said Flores, referring to one of his fellow soldiers on that fateful mission. "A 105-millimeter shell exploded right in the middle of us. Sergeant Otis was killed and all I got was a nick on my ankle. I didn't even report it."
Flores said that Sgt. Louis "trained all of us."
"Had it not been for Sergeant Louis I would have never made in through Vietnam," Flores said.
Because of incidents like these, Memorial Day is much more than just an extra day to have a picnic or barbecue with family and friends, said Cruz Juarez, 60, also a U.S. Army veteran.
"One of my closest friends was John Angel Garza of Porterville," Juarez said. "We were both in the 101st Airborne. I lost him in 1970 when he died in combat. He took a direct hit from an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] and machine-gun fire."
The best way to remember these soldiers, Jarvis said, is to emphasize the way they lived, not the way they died.
"That's what can get us through all these Memorial Days," he said.
Ellie