I’m going to step away from Cape for a couple of days. I’m scanning some photos from late 1969 and early 1970 because it’s important that we don’t forget what was going on forty years ago. While politicians were wrapping themselves in The Flag, young men were dying.
Youth for Decency Rally
That’s Jack Sensenbrenner, the right-wing former Bible salesman mayor of Columbus, OH, speaking at a Youth for Decency Rally. The rallies popped up all over the country after Jim Morrison of The Doors was arrested for indecency in Miami, decades before Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction.” President Nixon immediately endorsed the events, along with everyone else who was afraid of change, Rock and Roll and all the other hedonistic free love hippie things that went along with it.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam War comes home
Newspaper photographers don’t have any idea what the day is going to be like. My first assignment for The Athens Messenger on Sept. 17, 1969, was a routine grip-n-grin photo of a local serviceman being awarded a bunch of medals for his service in Vietnam.
Posthumous medal presentation
That afternoon, I went back to City Hall to watch the mayor award the Bronze Star and Purple Heart to the parents of a boy who didn’t come back. As I looked at their expressions, I wondered how much they had aged since they received that knock on their door and looked out to see a somber-faced soldier on their stoop.
The lonely ride back home with a box of medals
The image I’ve never been able to get out of my mind is the one of them walking out to their car. On their ride home, they’re going to have a box of medals sitting where their son should have been.
Country Joe and The Fish
As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep from thinking of the lines from Country Joe and The Fish that had been posted on the Ohio University College Green on Moratorium Day:
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send ‘em off before it’s too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
Their names are lost to me
I don’t know their names after all these years. I guess it’s not important in the long run. They can be the “Unknowns” to stand in for all of those families who received a knock on the door that changed their lives forever.
One thing I’ve always wondered: was there a newspaper photographer in North Vietnam who had the mirror image of my assignments?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Steinhoff, PalmBeachBikeTours. PalmBeachBikeTours said: Politicians were obsessed with "wardrobe malfunctions" while young men were killing and being killed. 40 years ago. http://bit.ly/cBQtoH [...]
Cape has its own casualty list. Many of the names are too familiar.
Robert Raymond Gregory
Lieutenant Colonel
United States Air Force
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
March 22, 1932 to November 19, 1973
POW December 02, 1966 to November 19, 1973
Gary Leroy Schemel
Private First Class
United States Marine Corps
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
January 04, 1946 to September 26, 1965
Robert Lee Taylor, Jr.
Corporal
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
March 10, 1947 to March 08, 1968
Carroll Joe Benton
Sergeant
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
September 23, 1951 to June 12, 1971
Elwin Harry Busch
Captain
United States Air Force
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
January 11, 1932 to June 09, 1967
Billy Jack Hogan, Jr.
Sergeant
United States Air Force
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
October 14, 1949 to November 29, 1970
Terrance Lee Brock
Specialist Four
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, MO
21 August 1946 – 04 January 1969
Charles Richard Finley
Private First Class
United States Marine Corps
Cape Girardeau, MO
02 December 1948 – 11 April 1968
Robert Dale McFall
Sergeant
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
June 26, 1949 to March 10, 1970
John Shelby Burford
Major
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
June 13, 1934 to August 30, 1967
Stephen Blake Peel
Specialist Four
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
June 06, 1947 to August 07, 1969
Earl Watson Tharp, Jr.
Specialist Five
Army of the United States
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
October 03, 1949 to June 26, 1970
God Bless you for the reminder & an image that I shall never forget either…
Bill,
You are entirely too correct. I should have added a photo I took of Freedom Corner, the southeast corner of Capaha Park, where the list of Cape’s military casualties are listed.
You have 12 names. Here are five names NOT on your list:
Marion Troy Eakins
Ervin J. Emrick
Robert L. McCallister
Benjamin R. Pinkerton
Gary Owen Price
What’s interesting is that there’s a name on YOUR list that is not on the plaque:
Elwin Harry Busch
Elwin Harry Busch was missing in action. His remains were later found and returned home long after the plaque at Freedom Corner was installed.