Past Announcements

From:  Harry GOAD
Email:  sizmictremor@gmail.com

Would you please post to all my 1/7 brothers that I will not be able to attend this Reunion.  I will be traveling to Bora Bora on May 13th to give my daughter away in marriage on the 17th and I will not be back in country until the Reunion is over.  I hope to see my brothers in 2018, Best Regards, Harry Goad!!!

  • 2013 A/1/7/VN Reunion Message

I just got back from the reunion and saw many I hadn’t seen since TET 1968.  During our reunion, we bussed to the Marine Museum and saw the history of our glorious Corps unfold.  Everyone was emotionally affected.  View our men in their mid-60’s, limping, using canes, some with prosthetic legs, hunched over, viewing history that they were a part of.  They drove down from Vermont, Illinois, Texas, Florida; from little towns that no one ever heard of.  Our Chief, from the Navajo reservation, brought much of his family; Marines and an AF enlisted man and his wife.  One Marine, hit so bad we thought he was dead met with the corpsman that saved his life……in all it was a moving experience. Semper Fi. 

From Mickey Coe!

  • Howdy Marines & Docs! 

I know four men whe served in A 1/7 from 66' - 67'. Can I forward this reunion info to them, so they can attend? (Yes) Also ... one of these men is a filmmaker, and made a movie about his experience. It was released in 2007, and is titled: Taking the Hill: A Warrior's Journey Home.  It would be my pleasure to mail you free copies of the DVD movie.  It contains in-depth interviews of several A 1/7 veterans, from the 66-67 era.  The policy of the filmmaker, is to provide free copies of this film to veterans.  How many would you like?  It would be our pleasure to send these to you.  With kind regards, Marv Sauer Orange, CA 714-633-2427.

  • Hi All.

In the RAO bulletin dated Sept 2012, was an article on Stolen Valor.  The conviction of Charles and Martha Kacmarczyk,( Martha is Irish McClancy's widow).  She and Charles attended at least two reunions that I can remember.  The item is at:  www.veteransresources.org/rao-bulletin  a little more the half way through.
Semper Fi, From Marine Tom Hurley

  • Hello Marines of Alpha!

Gary Hunt here passing on to you all a story about one of our Marines KIA in Vietnam. The story was sent to me from Terry Kirkland who has been a driving force of the 1/7 reunions for years. He and I went to Language School in Monterey, CA., before heading to Nam. Here is the story and Terry received it from Vic Vilionis who has been our Regimental Grave site locater all these years. He has done a remarkable job of locating the grave sites of our fallen brothers. Here is the story as follows:

POST-STANDARD Sunday, November 9, 2003
Restored marker symbol of shining devotion

This is a story about veterans looking after veterans at the eve of Veterans Day. That's why I'm standing in Jacksonville Cemetery the other day, at the northwest corner of Onondaga County, with Burt Sterlings, a very persistent citizen of Smokey Hollow Road. Burt's a Marine Corps veteran. We'd guess that from his buzz cut and the red and gold Marine Corps League jacket. The lines of his face suggest a wise man with a big heart, which Burt is. He did four years with the Marines during the Korean War and after, 1952-56. He was a sergeant with an air wing.

We stand there in the old rural burying ground, under gray clouds and tall evergreens that brush the ground, and look down at a burnished bronze tablet that shines pretty good at the moment. We're at the place where they buried Marine Pfc. Charles David Raver 35 years ago last summer. Charles was but 18 when he was killed during a Vietnam combat mission in May 1968. Charles graduated from Phoenix High School the year before.

"Imagine,"' Burt Stortings is saying. "They found this marker in a garage sale." Imagine.... Burt got the marker set in the ground where it ought to be in a little more than two weeks. He's got quite a story to tell. "I ran myself ragged," he says. "And I'm not done yet"

Here's what happened, according to him: Fred Stevens, an Army vet who lives in Red Creek, went by a garage sale in Fair Haven last month. That's where he saw Charles Raver's tablet for sale. "I guess he left and then had second thoughts and went back and bought it," Burt explains. Fred gave the marker to Joe Wilber, past commandant of the Merton Kemp Post 650 of the Marine Corps League in Fulton. Burt's a member there. "Joe checked the Vietnam Memorial Web site. He found Charles Raver's name on the monument. It said he was from Phoenix."' Phoenix's just over the Oswego County line, about five miles from the hamlet of Jacksonville, which is between Little Utica and Lysander. Joe gave the marker to Burt, who works part time at Our Lady of Peace Cemetery in Clay. He's familiar with veterans' tablets; a kin may order them free from the government. His first call was to Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington. "All they could tell me was to ship it back," Bun reports with a shrug. "My goal was to put it where it belonged.'"

Burt's next call was to the Onondaga County Veterans Service Agency. Sure enough, they had a file on Pfc. Raver. It consists of an information sheet filed by his mother in 1975 and a newspaper story about his death in 1968. The story said Charles had been born in Columbus, Ohio, and was a 1967 graduate at Phoenix. He was survived by his mother, Margaret, and a sister, Saundra. Services would be at Our Lady of Peace Church in Lakeland, where his mother lived. Burt checked with-the church- Records showed Charles was buried at Jacksonville. When he spoke to Don Williamson, the Jacksonville sexton, he learned there didn't seem to be anyone named Raver in the cemetery. More research found him, in the Thompson family lot buried next to Robert Thompson who died in 1967 at the age of 29. The 1975 record at the county service agency listed Charles' mother's name as Margaret B. Thompson, of Ontario Avenue. At the cemetery, Burt showed me how the name "Margaret" had been sanded off the Thompson monument and her son's carved over it.

There was another interesting connection in the 1968 article when the Army announced the deaths of "two Syracusans" in Vietnam. One was Charles Raver. The other was Army Pfc. William Thompson, of West Castle Street. William's name is also on the Vietnam Memorial, as well as Onondaga County's Honor Roll of soldiers killed in action. Burt wanted to contact Charles Raver's family but he's come up empty. "I want them to know what I did and make sure it's OK," he says. He can't explain how the marker got to the garage sale and not the cemetery. Charles "Pappy" Patchin at the service agency says the Marine Corps routinely sends a tablet to the family when someone is killed in action. They're usually delivered to a funeral home or to the cemetery. Burt tried John C. Birdiebough High School, the former Phoenix High School. Did anyone recall Charles Raver? He found his pictures in yearbooks, along with his sister's. Saundra Raver graduated in 1966. "I talked to some of his classmates but they didn't know much," Burt explains. "One said he thought the Ravers lived in Pennellville." Once Burt had the grave in sight, he went ahead with his plan. He polished the marker and gave it a coat of preservative before pouring a concrete base and securing it in the ground next to the Thompson stone. "Then I got a flag and a war veteran's flag holder for the kid," he says. Charles is buried a few yards from the grave of another Central New York man killed in Vietnam: Cpl. Jesse G. Eastman, who died in 1966. Ask Burt why he's doing this, and he looks the way he would at a private asking to be put on KP. "He's a Marine." he says.

One more thing: When Burt cleaned the tablet, he found stains and discoloration. Spots
on the underside looked like grease left from a hamburger. “I think it was once used as a grill," he says.

Dick Case writes Tuesday, Thursday,
Saturday and Sunday. Reach him at
470-2254, or by e-mai!,
otynews@syracuse com

  • Forwarded from Marine Mickey Coe!

This was made in Memory of our KIA from the First Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment.  Find a quiet moment, reflect on where you were 40+ years ago, and enjoy the video made for really great Marines and Corpsmen.  See the video at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhh4_P-CKgg

Ask your family, neighbors, and friends to also see it, so they know how we feel about those we lost!

  • Forty –Four years ago today; Frank, Vickers (Alpha 3/3) and Lt Cross.

I toast them every April 8th.

http://www.thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=32905
http://www.thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=53708
http://www.thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=11221
Semper Fi
Joe

  • This was sent by Jerry Grantland.

I now know why men who have been to war yearn to reunite.  Not to tell stories or look at old pictures.  Not to laugh or weep.  Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted at their best; men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped of their humanity.  I did not pick these men.  They were delivered by fate and the military.  But I know them in a way I know no other men.  I have never given anyone such trust.  They were willing to guard something more precious than my life.  They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me.  As long as I have memory, I will think of them all, every day.  I am sure that when I leave this world, my last thought will be of my family and my comrades…such good men.

The words -- profound.  The author -- unknown.

  • Subject: Fwd: Band of Brothers...Brotherhood:


Brother, life is too short to wake up with regrets.  So, love the people who treat you right.  Forgive the ones who don't, just because you can.  Believe everything happens for a reason.  If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands, those of you who served in Vietnam know this. If it changes your life, let it.  Take a few minutes to think before you act when you're mad.  Forgive quickly.  God never said life would be easy,  He just promised it would be worth it.  Today is Band of Brothers' Day; send this to all your brothers, fathers,sons and fellow veterans you know. Happy Brothers' Day!I LOVE YA BROTHER!!!  To the cool men [and women] in uniform that have touched my life.  Here's to you!!  I was never a hero, but I am thankful I served among them.  A real Brother walks with you when the rest of the world walks on you.  Send to all your Band of Brothers, because the fake ones won't.