Locals lost to the Vietnam War honored during Memorial Day ceremony

As Memorial Day fell just weeks after the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War this year, Elijah B. Hayes American Legion Post 168 Commander Amy Hussar used the opportunity to focus Monday’s ceremony on the local veterans that died in action during the historical conflict, honoring those who passed later in life or are still with us as well.

“We have a lot of Vietnam veterans, a lot,” Hussar said Monday. “The thought with this is—did they ever get a proper welcome home?”

“I wasn’t around,” she added. “But it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to have been around to care.”

Some of those local Vietnam veterans and their loved ones were present at the ceremony, speaking to both the personal and the national tolls of the war.

“This war is very dear to me because I lost my brother there,” said a teary-eyed Janie Quiroba, local legion auxiliary president, to the large crowd gathered at Patterson District Cemetery for Post 168’s ceremony. Quiroba’s husband Pedro, who passed away in 2009, served in the Vietnam War as well.

Pepper Smith could be seen standing close to Monday’s guest speakers holding a photograph of her own brother Leonard Reza, who was killed in combat in April of 1971. Reza was the fourth local man to die in the Vietnam War, having graduated from Patterson High School in 1969 where he was the editor of “Tiger Tales,” the campus newspaper.

Hussar referred to Smith as Reza’s “second mother.” He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alejandro Reza. The post commander named the three casualties to precede Reza during the Memorial Day ceremony:

• The first local to pass in Vietnam succumbed to friendly fire, not enemy: Charles “Bob” Mears,” who passed in June of 1967 and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Mears.
• Demetrius Hernandez was Patterson’s second. He died of gunshot wounds in October of 1967, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Antonio G. Hernandez.
• Sgt. Joseph Silveira, an Azores native, would have been eligible for U.S. citizenship upon his discharge, but in January of 1968, he died in combat in Vietnam. He attended school in Westley and Turlock and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Toni Silveira.

Like Quiroba, speakers Pastor Ken Moren and former Post 168 commander Michael Anderson found it difficult to choke back tears when recounting the ways that the Vietnam War touched their lives. 

After assisting in a roll call of the local veterans who have passed between Memorial Day 2014 and Memorial Day 2015, Anderson spoke about his brother Stephen, a Marine who fought in the war and died a couple of weeks ago on May 12. 

“He lived a living nightmare from the time he left Vietnam to the time he passed away,” he said. “We can pray and be thankful that his nightmare is gone.” An Air Force veteran himself, Anderson asked former Marines Councilman Dennis McCord and Mayor Luis Molina to send off his brother with a “semper fi.”

The local veterans who passed this last year are: John Azevedo, Kenneth Bennett, Anton Bogdanich, Emil Burch, Silvestre Carrillo, George Crawford, Robert Days, Vern Hooper, William Lee, Mike Mattos, Joel Ramirez, Steven Smith and Justin Traina.

Moren, who served two tours in Vietnam, one during the Tet Offensive, gave the invocation and benediction for the ceremony. Boy Scout Troops 81 and 82 and local Cub Scouts, American Heritage Girls and Girl Scout Troops assisted with the service, posting the colors, leading the pledge of allegiance and singing “God Bless the USA.”

Nathan Duckworth can be reached at 892-6187 ext. 307 or nathan@pattersonirrigator.com.