Mercer Archives - Avenue of Flags

Albert Krisunas Christy

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army. Vietnam

Albert Christy was part of a unique military family. His father, Ambrose Christy, served the U.S. Army in World War I in France, where he was a victim of a mustard gas attack. His four brothers all served in the military, too.

What makes the family unique, however, is that each of them served in a different branch: Freddy in the Navy, Paul in the Coast Guard, Donald in the Army Air Force, Charlie in the Marine Corps, and Albert in the Army.

Perhaps the strength and determination of all of them came from a very hard childhood. Their mother died in childbirth in 1940, leaving Ambrose with eight children. Two of them, Albert and Paul, lived for a couple of years in St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Erie before they started school.

Albert dropped out of Mercer High School in his Junior year and joined the Army in 1955. After serving in Korea, he was assigned to Germany from March 1962 to April 1965. In September, 1964, he married Inge Gerlach. Through the Army education program, he achieved his high school diploma.

Upon leaving Germany, he was stationed at Fort Ord, California. From there, in spite of his family’s pleas, he volunteered for Vietnam. On February 6, 1966, he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Darloc Province. A little more than a month later, while on a combat mission, Sgt. Albert Christy was killed by a sniper.

He left behind his wife, Inge, and their daughter, Diana, and two step-sons from Inge’s previous marriage. He is buried in San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Cemetery. His family was living in Seaside, California, while he was in Vietnam.

SSgt. Christy’s decorations include the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm Unit Citation.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 6E Line 17

David E. Baun

Jackson Center, PA

US Army, Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, body counts were reported almost daily, with Viet Cong casualties many times greater than American. For those whose loved ones were killed in the action, that was no consolation.

During June, 1966, the 4th Cavalry, supported by the 2nd Battalion 28th Infantry, conducted search and destroy operations in Binh Long Province, along the border with Cambodia, directly north of Saigon. The mission was to eliminate the 271st, 272nd, and 273rd Regiments of the 9th Viet Cong Division to secure Highway 13 and protect the city of An Loc.

On June 30, B Troop of the 1st Squadron 4th Cavalry Regiment was ambushed and severely damaged by the 271st VC Regiment. When the C troop and the 2nd Battalion 28th Infantry came in support, it turned into a three-day battle. By the time it was over, 270 Viet Cong soldiers were dead, compared with “only” 37 Americans.

The only thing that mattered to Mercer County was that one of those 37 was the radio operator for the Executive Officer of Company C, 2/18 Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. His name was Sp4 David E. Baun. He had been in Vietnam since May 20, 1966.

According to reports, Sp4 Baun distributed ammunition to the men of his unit with complete disregard for his own safety. He was killed while supervising the rescue of the wounded and the recovery of their equipment.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with “V” device for valor, and the Purple Heart.

David was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wade E. Baun, Jackson Center RD2. He also left behind his wife, the former Pauline Werner, Easton, PA, whom he married April 23 a week before going to Vietnam.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial – Panel 08E Line 110

Video of battle with 2nd Battalion 28th Infantry in Binh Long province in 1971, which gives an idea of what Sp4 Baun experienced on the day he died.

Joseph Thompson

Mercer, PA

U.S. Air Force – World War II

During World War II, simply getting to a duty station could be a long ordeal. After being trained as a clerk typist, Joe Thompson sailed with the 54th Air Service Group to North Africa. They camped out for a month before sailing through the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Indian Ocean to Bombay, India. Then they rode via narrow gauge railroad clear across India to an airfield near Dacca, which was about 50 miles from the eastern border of India with Burma.

“The railroad cars were about half the size of ours,” Joe said. “They were open air, with seats along either side.”

The mission of the 54th Air Service Group was to maintain and repair B-24 bombers that had been converted into tankers to fly fuel into U.S. military units in China.

“There were about 2000 Americans stationed at the base,” Joe said. “They would bring fuel by trucks from Calcutta and load it onto the planes. We had just one runway. About half a dozen planes would take off and land every day.”

Calcutta was about 250 miles southwest of the base.

During the two years Joe was there, they had about three mishaps when planes, fully loaded with fuel, failed to make it off the ground by the end of the runway.

Corporal Thompson, who was the son of a Methodist minister, was selected to be the chaplain’s assistant.

“I did the chaplain’s bookwork, wrote letters and so on,” he said. “If we had deaths in the unit, it was my job to write a letter of condolence to the next of kin. We built a chapel out of bamboo, with a thatched roof. One day a large windstorm came along and blew the whole thing down.”

They even had music in their services provided by a little pump organ.

The main enemy of the troops there was a little “bug” called the entamoega histolytica, which causes amoebic dysentery. Shortly before he left for home, Joe was hospitalized for about a month by the disease.

After two years there, Joe was granted emergency leave to come back home because his father was dying.

“I was flown across India to Karachi,” he said. “As I was boarding the ship, I was notified that my father had passed away.”

Since the war was over, Joe continued on home, arriving in Volant late in December, 1945.

Lewis Francis Brest

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army, Civil War

When Lewis Francis Brest was buried in Citizen’s Cemetery in Mercer December, 1915, few words were chiseled into his tombstone: “Prvt. Lewis F. Brest 57th Pa. Infantry.” There was no reference to his being awarded a Medal of Honor during the Civil War. Brest received his Medal for what became the signature action for which it was awarded during the Civil War. On April 6, 1865, near Petersburg, Virginia, Private Brest captured the enemy regiment’s battle flag.

During the Civil War, the battle flag was far more than a decoration. On the battlefield, it was extremely important. Without it, scattered soldiers would have no idea where to go; with it, they all could see the rallying point for their regiment. Because of its importance, it was carried and defended by the best and the bravest soldiers in the regiment. To capture it usually took the kind of fortitude one associates with a Medal of Honor.

Unfortunately, in the early days after it was created, the Medal wasn’t as esteemed as it is today because many were awarded for frivolous reasons. For example, 864 members of one regiment received the Medal when 300 of them reenlisted before they had even seen one day of combat.

Lewis Brest should have been proud of his Medal of Honor because he deserved it. However, he was probably prouder of his long service with the 57th Pennsylvania Regiment. Merely surviving was something to be proud of. At Antietam the regiment lost 98 killed and wounded, and three missing. In an assault on Marye’s Heights in the battle of Fredericksburg, they lost 87 out of the 192 soldiers engaged in the fight. At Gettysburg the undermanned unit lost another 34.

Brest remained active throughout the war except for the summer of 1963. Confined to the regimental hospital by a bout with typhoid fever, he missed the regiment’s action at Gettysburg. In the spring of 1864, he was wounded in the neck, but was back in action before very long.

When he received the Medal of Honor, he was probably happier about the thirty-day leave it earned him rather than about the Medal itself. He is honored today, however, because of the Mercer County Historical Society’s Western Pennsylvania Civil War Reenactors Society. Through their efforts, the United States government awarded Private Brest a new memorial headstone, engraved in gold with “Lewis F. Brest, ‘Medal of Honor’ Pvt Co ‘D’ 57 PA Inf. May 15, 1842 – Dec 2, 1915.”

Lt. Col. Michael McLaughlin

Michael McLaughlin

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army – War on Terror

When one man is killed in combat, it isn’t just a man who dies. It is a son, a husband, a father, an uncle, a friend, a fellow soldier, and sometimes a leader who puts the safety and welfare of others in front of his own.

Lt. Col. Mike McLaughlin was all of those people. Early in the morning on January 5, 2005, in Ramadi, Iraq, he was with a crowd of 300 Iraqis who had responded to an Iraqi police recruiting drive. He was following the first priority of a military officer: Accomplish the mission.

At 7:02, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives. When shrapnel struck the back of Mike’s head, a soldier went to check him out. “I’m okay,” he said. “Go help the others.”

In that, he fulfilled a leader’s second priority: Look out for the welfare of your men.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t okay. He died from the wound.

The responses of those who knew him reveal what was lost to the world.

“Mike was a leader in word, deed, and action,” said friend and fellow soldier Lt. Col. Grey D. Berrier II. “He was a charismatic leader that always led from the front, and was the consummate professional.”

“Mike died doing his job the only way he knew how — out in front, with great enthusiasm and courage,” said Col. John L Gronski, commander for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team. “He was a very close friend. My heart and my prayers go out to his family.”

Tammy McLaughlin lost her husband. Their two daughters, Ericha and Erin, lost their father.

In a speech she gave at a Veteran’s Day ceremony, his niece Paige related some of her most precious memories. “When my sister and I were really little, we went to a beach house with him. He gave us licorice for breakfast.” She remembered him as a “man that would laugh at anything, one that would make anyone his best friend just by saying hello.”

Apparently Mike said hello to a lot of people. His niece Chloe remembers his funeral. “I saw so many people that I didn’t even know. I didn’t realize how many people were his friends.”

Chloe was six when her uncle died, and ten when she wrote this insightful conclusion: “I’m proud of the veterans that have served in our beautiful free country and I am very proud of my uncle Mike. The next time you see a veteran please say thank you.”

Maurice Garrett Jr.

Garrett, Maurice

Lackawannock Township, Mercer County, PA

U. S. Army – Vietnam

In Mercer County, Capt. Maurice Garrett Jr. is one of the most recognizable names among those on the Vietnam War Memorial. That’s largely because of the long-standing uncertainty as to whether or not it should be there.

The doubts started from the time of the initial investigation of his helicopter crash on October 22, 1971. Capt. Garrett was flying an AH1G Cobra on an armed visual reconnaissance mission out of Quang Tri, along with three other helicopters. The weather was “marginal,” so Capt. Garrett ordered the other copters to hold while he flew into a valley to check it out. Five minutes later, he reported that he had zero visibility and would return to Quang Tri on instruments.

He never made it. His helicopter apparently crashed after hitting some trees. The aircraft exploded with such force that few identifiable parts of the aircraft remained. A search of the area found the remains of his co-pilot, but none of Capt. Garrett.

That left investigators with two possible conclusions. Because of violence of the explosion, they concluded that Capt. Garrett couldn’t possibly have survived the inferno, and that his body had been completely destroyed in the fire.

However, there remained the slight possibility that Capt. Garrett had somehow survived because something should have survived, such as helmet, watch, dentures, boot eyelets, and dog tabs. But none of those were found.

This second possibility was reinforced in 1984 when the Garrett family was told by a private source that Capt. Garrett was alive. Seven other families received similar word. Although the U.S. government said the information was false, it renewed the hope that Capt. Garrett was still alive, possibly a prisoner of war – a hope shared by his family, friends, and MIA groups.

Whatever his fate, Capt. Garrett was a true hero in the Vietnam War. A paratrooper during his first tour in Vietnam from December 1967 to December 1968, he was wounded three times, and was awarded his first Silver Star for “utmost bravery and heroism.”

Back in the U.S., he learned to fly the Cobra, then returned to Vietnam in December, 1970. Before his helicopter crashed, he had received a second Silver Star, a National Defense Medal, two Bronze Stars with valor device, three Purple Hearts, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and several Vietnamese medals.

Capt Garrett is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice E. Garrett, Lackawannock Township.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 02W Line 047

Miles Bradley Hedglin

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

The terrain in Vietnam varies from the broad, flat flood plains of the Mekong Delta to the mountainous terrain of the central highlands, covered with triple canopy jungles. Miles Bradley Hedglin of Mercer ended up in the latter when he was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry [photos] in Kontum Province, in January, 1969.

We can get a sense of what he went through there by reading the memoirs of Robert Granger, another soldier who was there at the time. He tells of the things you would expect: night patrols, incoming mortar and artillery rounds, close calls, enemy attacks on their base camps.

But Granger also tells of other aspects of jungle combat in Vietnam. In March, 1969, encamped on a hill designated as Hill 467, Company B was bombarded with artillery, mortar, and rockets for days. A sniper wreaked havoc on them; an airstrike failed to silence him, and patrols sent out to locate him could not do so. Water and food were getting low, and enemy fire prevented helicopters from resupplying them.

Three soldiers brought back several ammo containers of water from a stream that wasn’t far away.

“We were given two canteens each,” Granger wrote. “I filtered the leaches and algae out through the top of a dirty sock, then added the iodine tablets. Later in the day, one of the guys from another platoon offered me $480 for a canteen of my water. I turned him down.”

Granger’s descriptions of events on March 25 are gruesome. Granger sums up the events of March 25 in a few words: “Haven’t had any sleep to speak of in days. The lack of water and food and constant shelling is taking its toll on everyone. A five minute nap is about all I can get at one time. The night time probing and hearing the digging, moaning of their wounded and movement just outside the wire, with it dark enough not to be able to see a thing keeps everyone alert every minute.”

He attributes his survival to his guardian angel, since a B-40 rocket and a hand grenade exploded close to him without even inflicting a wound. PFC Miles Hedglin’s guardian angel must have dozed off. Miles was killed while providing cover fire to free others in his unit.

To get a sense of what PFC Hedglin experienced during his last few days, you can read an after action report covering the 2nd Battalion 8th Infantry from March 17 through March 21, 1969, just a few days before PFC Hedglin was killed.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W28 Line 36

PFC Richard L. McNeish

Mercer, PA

U.S. Marine Corps – Vietnam

A sense of irony and humor was vital to U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. They would often take names of places they knew back home and apply them to areas in Vietnam where they served.

Happy Valley, as every Penn State fan knows very well, is the home of Penn State’s main campus in State College, PA. In Vietnam, Happy Valley was not a happy place, either for U.S. or enemy soldiers. The area was covered by thick undergrowth and elephant grass that grew as tall as ten feet. That, of course, made combat operations extremely difficult and dangerous – and made it a great place for a major Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army base camp.

It was better than great, because it was a perfect place to infiltrate men and materials for operations around Da Nang, its port facilities, and Logistics Command. From the surrounding hills, within 12 km of the city and its military operations, the enemy could fire rockets and other weapons effectively.

Defense of the area was partially the responsibility of the 1st Battalion 7th Marine Regiment. PFC Richard L. McNeish was assigned to Company B of that battalion after arriving in Vietnam on September 20, 1967. Barely more than a month later, on October 24, he went out on patrol with his unit. He was killed by an enemy explosive device.

PFC McNeish was the son of Kermith and Clara McNeish. He had enlisted in the Marine Corps during April, 1967.

PFC McNeish was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal

He was the ninth Mercer County serviceman killed in the Vietnam War.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 28E Line 61

Ronald J. DiBartolomeo

DiBartolomeo, Ronald

Springfield Township – Mercer County, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

In Vietnam, 20-year old SP4 Ronald DiBartolomeo was a bobcat. That was the nickname of members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, operating in the area of Bien Hoa. They conducted some combined operations with ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), which could be a very hazardous kind of combat.

On November 9, 1970, Sp4 DiBartolomeo’s squad headed out with five ARVN soldiers to set up an ambush. Randy Kethcart, another bobcat, described what happened:

“On the way there they walked into an ambush (which we believe was set up by the 2 ARVNs walking point since we never found them, believing that they went over to the other side).”

Two members of the patrol were killed outright. Ronald was severely wounded; he died two days later.

Spec. 4 DiBartolomeo was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frankie DiBartolomeo, Springfield Township, Mercer County, PA. After graduating from Grove City High School in 1966, he studied at Youngstown State University. He was drafted into the army in September, 1969, and was sent to Vietnam in March, 1970.

He was the 34th serviceman from Mercer County to die in the Vietnam war.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 06W Line 052

Sgt. Carl James (Jim) Forrester

Forrester, Carl James

Carl James (Jim) Forrester

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Jim Forrester was the kind of first that no one wants to be. He was the first Mercer County resident to be killed in the Vietnam War.

Sgt. Forrester had joined the army in 1962, two years before the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that led to the deployment of U.S. ground forces into Vietnam. He had served in Turkey, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico before being assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 7th Cavalry.

His tour began on January 18, 1966. On January 25, just a week after he arrived, the 3rd Brigade moved with other units from its base camp to a staging area in eastern Binh Dinh Province. From there, the 7th Cav launched Operation Masher. The 3rd Brigade opened an assault that was heavily resisted by the North Vietnamese Army. On February 1st, the NVA withdrew to the north and west. Enemy losses swelled to 1,350 killed in action, rendering two battalions of the NVA’s 22nd ineffective. The U.S. Army lost only seventy-seven men, but one of those was Sgt. Forrester. While participating in a night drop from a helicopter, Sgt. Forrester was raked by machine gun fire. He died instantly from a head wound.

When news of his death arrived here, a friend told the Sharon Herald that Sgt. Forrester had had a premonition of his death. On New Year’s Eve, shortly before his deployment, he had given this friend his airborne tie tack and said, “I don’t think I am coming back.”

That was not an uncommon feeling among those assigned to Vietnam, many of whom did in fact come back. Unfortunately, for Sgt. Forrester, it proved to be true. He never came back to his wife and three children.

Sgt. Forrester was honored at the Mercer Memorial 500 in 2007.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 4E Line 128