Memorial Day 2024 - Remembering My Friends

Memorial Day for most Americans is a generalized event during which veterans who have died are recognized by the public at large. This year, I want to bring home the fact that the millions who served in Vietnam, died in combat, or lived out their lives at home, are individuals, friends, and fellow vets. They have names and faces. They have wives and children. I would like you to meet some of those I knew who served in Vietnam and lost their lives there or later died, many of causes related to their service.

Gerry Winch was a college friend who was killed-in-action in Vietnam in 1968. He and I were members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at John Carroll University. We were also members of the military fraternity, the Pershing Rifles. He graduated a year before I did, and died in Vietnam in March, 1968 just six months before my arrival there in October, 1968. He was a Purple Heart recipient. He was 27 years old when he died. His brother, Jack, a close college friend and also a member of the Pershing Rifles, survived his tour in Vietnam but was badly wounded. 

Michael Sudborough was a classmate of mine at the Infantry Officers Basic Course and Airborne (Parachutist) Course at Ft. Benning (now Ft. Moore) in 1965. One of the last times I saw him was at his home on Thanksgiving Day 1965 where I joined him and his wife for the traditional celebration. He was killed-in-action in Vietnam in March of 1967. He was a Purple Heart recipient. Many of his friends had tried to dissuade him, but he volunteered for a combat assignment, even though he could have served his one tour of duty in Korea and returned to his wife in Oregon. A fellow vet and I visited his grave in a Veterans Administration Cemetery near San Francisco a few years ago. Michael died at age 25. 

Charlie Hymers was a college classmate and a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps at John Carroll University. We were in the same class, graduating and receiving our commissions as second lieutenants in 1965. I never saw him again, as he was killed-in-action while piloting a helicopter in Vietnam in February, 1967. He was a Purple Heart recipient. Charlie always had a big grin on his face when I would turn around to see him seated in the back of our military science classroom. He died at the age of 24.

Hal Hilton was a classmate of mine at the Infantry Officers Basic Course and Airborne (Parachutist) Course at Ft. Benning in 1965. His future wife, Jeannie, coincidentally lived on the same floor in an apartment building in Berlin where I was assigned in 1967/1968. He and his wife remained close friends of mine until his death in 2021; Jeannie had died a few years before. Hal survived a serious leg wound during his tour in Vietnam which ended his plans for a career in the military. Hal was a Purple Heart recipient. He suffered from post traumatic stress and died too soon from cancer as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange. He was 80 years old. 

Chuck Krajniak was a college classmate and close friend who survived his tour of duty with the Infantry in Vietnam. He and I were members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at John Carroll University. We were also members of the military fraternity, the Pershing Rifles. He suffered from post traumatic stress and died much too early from cancer as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange. He was 66. 

Tom Etowski was a college friend. He and I were members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at John Carroll University. We were also members of the military fraternity, the Pershing Rifles. There was never a dull moment with Tom around. He graduated from college a year before I did and we remained in touch periodically for the next 56 years. Tom survived his tour of duty in Vietnam in spite of his several wounds. He was a Purple Heart recipient. He died of heart failure at the age of 80. 

Lew Puller was my close friend during the last 10 years of his life. A U.S. Marine officer, he was very badly wounded in Vietnam and later wrote a book about his experience, "Fortunate Son," for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Lew suffered continually throughout his life from residual pain from his war wounds and post traumatic stress with attendant addiction to pain killers. He took his own life in 1994.  He was 48 years old. 

Fred Caristo and I met as fellow students in 1970 at the Military Intelligence Officers Advanced Course at Ft. Holabird, Maryland. Fred was a legend in U.S. Special Forces, especially his multiple tours of duty in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Fred was a Purple Heart recipient. He eventually transferred to Military Intelligence as a follow-on to his time with Special Forces. We kept in touch during the 1970s as our military careers went in separate directions with an occasional crossing, as is part and parcel of life in the military. After both of us were out of the military, I ran across his name in an intelligence debriefing report about U.S. POW/MIAs from Vietnam. The source was a Vietnamese refugee who had once worked with Fred in special operations in Vietnam. Fred agreed to come to our office in the Pentagon to be debriefed on the topic and enlarge on the report. We were able to arrange a reunion between Fred an his Vietnamese commando colleague. Eventually, based in part on this reunion, another Army intelligence colleague wrote a book on the topic of commando operations in Vietnam. Fred died at age 72 in 2012.  

Jack McGuinness and I were fellow students in 1970 at the Military Intelligence Officers Advanced Course at Ft. Holabird, Maryland. Jack had multiple tours in Vietnam and Laos during the war in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. Like Fred Caristo, he transferred to Military Intelligence. We stayed in touch on and off. A chance encounter with him in 1995 in a hallway in one of the Crystal City, Virginia, office buildings allowed us to reconnect. I was also able to reunite him and a former Laotian general with whom he worked in the 1960s. Such is military life with its unexpected reunions. Jack was a Purple Heart recipient and died in 2016 at the age of 77.  

John Marcy was a college friend. He and I were members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at John Carroll University. We were also members of the military fraternity, the Pershing Rifles. He graduated one year before I did. We found each other from time to time during our Army service, including a chance encounter with him and his wife, Paula, in the Army Commissary in Bangkok, Thailand, where both of us were stationed in 1975. John was a Purple Heart recipient. I last saw John and Paula pre-COVID at a Pershing Rifles reunion in Cleveland, Ohio. John died at age 84. 

Maybe you have a friend or relative who served in the military but who has now passed away. Let us know in the comments below so we can add faces and personal history to the Memorial Day remembrances.