The Men Who Served With My Father, By KAREN ZACHARIAS

The Men Who Served With My Father, By KAREN ZACHARIAS

(EXCERPT)

I recognized Pablo Gallegos' signature long before I recognized his
face. I'd read it innumerable times as I rifled through my father's
personnel file. Gallegos' name was scribbled on the Statement of
Recognition. His signature confirmed that the lifeless body before him
was indeed that of Staff Sgt. David Paul Spears, my father. It was
dated July 24, 1966. Pablo remembers that day better than he cares to.

Like my father, Gallegos served with the 25th Infantry Division, 3rd
Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 9th Artillery. The unit was shipped to Vietnam
in December 1965. My father, 35, was Chief of Smoke for Bravo Battery.
Gallegos, 19, was a medic with Headquarters Battery. He worked in
Pleiku with the 106th MedVac Hospital. Often he was in the field, less
than a mile away from where the infantry and artillery were based.
That day the company was in the Ia Drang Valley.

A mortar round exploded outside my father's tent at 5:30 a.m. Fiery
shrapnel pierced my father's back, nicked his lung, and pushed his gut
through an exit wound. He cried for help. The guys in the field did
the best they could but the evacuation helicopter was grounded by bad
weather. It would be 10:00 a.m. or later before a Medevac was sent in
to retrieve my father. By then, all his life's blood had bled out.
Without dog tags to identify this soldier, the morgue folks searched
for an eyewitness who knew this Sergeant, this father of three, this
husband of one.

"They had me come over to identify him," Pablo Gallegos recalled. "I
remember someone there, in the field morgue, asking me, 'Do you
recognize this man? Do you know who h...

U.S. and friendly nation laws prohibit fully reproducing
copyrighted material. In abidance with our laws this report
cannot be provided in its entirety. However, you can read it
in full today, 23 Jan 2004, at the following URL. (COMBINE
the following lines into your web browser.) The
subject/content of this report is not necessarily the
viewpoint of the distributing Library. This report is provided
for your information and discussion.

http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2003_12/featureFather.htm

---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com