Both Age
21
The day Michael left for Boot Camp
[Photo by the
McAninch family--Houston, TX]
~~~
By Cpl. Michael Alan McAninch
Houston, Texas
USMC, 1st Marine
Division
"Mike" Co., 3rd Bn, 7th Rgt., 3rd. Plt., 3rd. Sqd.
KIA Aug. 28,
1969
Age 22
Prelude:
My Beloved and My Hero
My Michael gave his life for his country and for his Marine squad during the Summer Offensive of 1969 while protecting his men who came under withering attack. Totally unconcerned for his own safety, Michael skillfully moved his men into defensive positions, repeatedly exposed himself to attack while pointing out targets to his men; then when he saw several of his men trapped and wounded, he sprinted across a rice field under heavy assault and provided protective fire for his men while other Marines evacuated them to safety--when he was mortally wounded by a mortar. His actions inspired his men and saved many lives. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" and the Purple Heart for his actions that day in one of the worst battles of the Summer Offensive at Hiep Duc Valley. The word 'hero' is used too lightly in our culture; my Michael, and men and women like him then and today, are the heroes who deserve our love, respect, and admiration.
Interested readers are referred to Death Valley: The Summer Offensive, I Corps, August 1969 by Keith William Nolan (1987, rpt. 1999, Presidio Press, available at various on line bookstores) which chronicles this Offensive. Additionally, please see the following excellent web sites for further information about The First Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, Seventh Regiment as well as this famous company: Visions of Vietnam, Mike 3/7, Semper Fidelis: 7th Marines, and Vietnam Death Trip. Students and teachers might want to view Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam and the Time-Life Video History of the Vietnam War. For two very moving pieces of literature more than a hundred years apart, I also recommend reading Major Sullivan Ballou's poignant Civil War letter to his wife and Dan Mouer's brilliant "What is a Vietnam Veteran?" Both have provided me with deep personal comfort.
~ ~ ~
Michael left behind his mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparents, many other family and friends--and me, his fiancée, whom he called 'Joanie.' I especially wanted to share his love of life, family, and friends; his poignant descriptions of moments he found beautiful or moving; his experiences from boot camp through his tour in Vietnam, and his longing to come home again. Toward the end of his tour, he was hoping to be rotated into a language program to perfect his Vietnamese, so he could become an interpreter and advisor. He loved the Vietnamese people and wrote movingly about them and the beauty of Vietnam.
Michael wanted to become a teacher: though he sacrificed all his tomorrows, and his death changed my life forever, I hope these letters (edited by me for length and family privacy) will help those who have been there or who have lost loved ones as well; I also hope they will educate the next generation about the War and the precious ones who served their country and us in that War. I am particularly grateful to the middle school and high school teachers and students who have used Michael's web site in their social studies units, writing me incredibly poignant letters that share their love, interest, and compassion. In an era of war around the globe and school shootings at home, it is my hope that men like Michael may provide solace and inspiration to this precious generation who have inherited the world they are now witnessing.
Michael never wrote about the real hardships, terror, agony, and bloodshed: I had to learn more about the horrors he endured from Veterans and my reading. These men and women like Michael were here with us in those days so long ago: they laughed, cried, played, dreamed, suffered, and died; they loved life, and they loved us as we love them; they were real, and they gave everything they had. Yet they never received the love and respect they deserved from the country they served, and the Vietnam Vet has endured the ignominy of myths and stereotypes for three decades, but now the Vietnam Veteran Family is claiming its voice and mustering its right to be heard. We must never let the Vietnam Veteran fall victim again to stereotypes, and we must not let those who fell in a land so far away from their homes slip from the sacred halls of memory where they now reside and from where they still reach out to touch our hearts and ask us to remember them. Thank you for spending a few minutes here--and God Bless You.
[Note from Joan: for clarification, Michael's dad, Bill, died of a heart attack May 1997 and now rests beside his son; Michael's mom, Lilly, is thriving and well-cared for in her eighties by her family; Pat and Mary Ann are Michael's brother and sister; they have since married and raised their own families--Michael has four nephews and nieces he never saw. One of his nephews serves in the Army overseas. Since I have lost my own letters, photos, and mementos from Michael in a tragic fire, I am deeply indebted to sweet Pat and his wonderful wife, Kathy, for providing these letters and photos to comfort me and share with others. I also want to thank the following Vietnam Veterans, family members, and survivors for their unstinting help, compassion, guidance, web designs, suggestions--and love as they helped me on my journey to find Michael's Marine brothers and my new family: Sgt. Jim (Polecat) Schueckler, Sgt. Jerry Chong, Sgt. Vic Vilionis, Sgt. Bill McBride, Sgt. George Martin, Lt. Larry Orefice, Sgt. Carl Yousey, Sgt. Casey Piatt, General Tom Droude, Sally Griffis, Deanna Shlee, Lois Adams, and many others who simply wrote and encouraged me. Unless otherwise indicated, notes in italics are mine.]
Michael, this is for
you, Bright Angel, with my love and prayers until we
meet again.
You are remembered always by family and friends who love
and miss you still and now by
others who will also know you, to whom you can
reach out--and teach.
You are so beautiful
still, My Love.
~ Your Joanie
"Journeys end in lovers meeting" --Twelfth Night (2.3.44)
" When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of
heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no
worship to the garish sun. "
~ Romeo and Juliet
Read Letters Home from Vietnam
Michael's Combat
History
~ ~ ~
"Soldier, rest! Thy
warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of
battlefields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking."
~ Sir Walter Scott
~ ~ ~ Thank you for taking the time to spend with Michael
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
Rev. 21:4
Michael's Site Created on Memorial Day
1998 By
Joan McAninch
Samuelson
Updated Memorial Day, May 25, 2009
"Have you forgotten yet? . . .
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget! . . .
Have you forgotten yet? . . .
Look up, and swear by the green of spring that you’ll never forget!"
~~ From "Aftermath" by Siegfried Sassoon, 1919
