Paul David McKnight

Paul McKnight

Fredonia, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

According to friends who knew Paul McKnight in school, he was a quiet young man. His parents, John and Martha McKnight, once owned a farm that was east of Clarksville, PA, on land that is now under Shenango Lake. His older sister, Elaine, born with spinal bifida, passed away in her 20s.

When he graduated from Reynolds High School in 1965, Paul followed a military tradition in his family. Three of his uncles served in World War II – Paul and Robert Yarian, and Eugene Leiphiemer. Two cousins, Dale Jackson Miller and Harold E. Miller, served in Korea.

Paul enlisted in the Army on April 24, 1966. In January, 1967, he left for his first tour in Vietnam. He was wounded twice in March, 1967, before he returned to the states, for which he was awarded two Purple Hearts.

After a year at Fort Knox, Kentucky, he could have avoided going back to Vietnam because he was the only surviving child. Nevertheless, he chose to go. He was assigned to D Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division which was conducting intense operations in Tay Ninh Province.

During the summer of 1969, the 1st Cav must also have conducted operations in Binh Long to the northeast of Tay Ninh. It was there that Sgt McKnight was killed. For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with “V” device for valor. Here is an excerpt from his citation for that award:

“On a combat mission in Binh Long, he and the members of his squad came under heavy automatic weapons fire from an unknown hostile force in a night ambush site while trying to retrieve abandoned equipment. Sgt. McKnight returned the fire and directed his fire team during the fight. In the exchange he was killed.”

In addition to the Bronze Star, Sgt. McKnight was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Vietnamese Service Medal, and an Air Medal.

The medals were presented for heroism in action in the Republic of Vietnam for action on July 31, 1969

His Presbyterian Church in Fredonia, Pennsylvania, honored him by dedicating its Carillon to him.

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Raymond Lee McGarvey

Transfer, PA

U.S Army – Vietnam

As the name implies, search and destroy missions were designed to locate and eliminate enemy forces. That didn’t work so well when half a platoon of American infantry located a well-rested North Vietnamese Army battalion fresh out of Cambodia.

That’s what happened on July 3, 1966, to Raymond Lee McGarvey near Pleiku in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. First thing in the morning, his platoon was split in two. Half of them went west toward Cambodia, the other half in another direction. The half that went west stumbled upon an empty enemy base camp. They checked it out, and determined that it was for a battalion-size unit. They decided to get out of there fast, but before they could get very far, they ran into an ambush.

Far outnumbered, they were the ones who were destroyed. Out of the 22 who had started out that morning, 15 lay dead and another four seriously wounded.

During that battle, Raymond McGarvey went out in a blaze of glory. His Bronze Star citation describes his heroic actions:

“On this date Private First Class McGarvey was serving as a rifleman in the 3rd Platoon, B, 1/35th Infantry which was on a search and destroy mission. His unit was ambushed by at least a reinforced North Vietnamese company; coming under intense fire and surrounded. Moving to a forward position, Private First Class McGarvey brought fire on the enemy inflicting many casualties. Seeing an enemy machine gun that was delivering particularly effective fire on his comrades, he moved to a better position in an effort to silence it. He continued his advance until within twenty meters of the bunker and then single-handedly charged the fortified machinegun position. In this act of great valor Private First Class McGarvey lost his life to enemy machine gun fire. His courage was an inspiration to all who saw it and strengthened the determination of his comrades to resist, despite the heavy odds they faced that day.”

For his service, PFC McGarvey was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star with V, 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.

Raymond was born in Clearfield County and moved to Transfer in 1964 with his parents, Mr. Mrs. Walter E. McGarvey. He worked at the Greenville Steel Car Company before entering the Army.

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Rodger McElhaney

Jamestown, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

After arriving in Vietnam on January 1, 1969, Rodger McElhaney wrote a lot of letters home. He told them that his unit operated out of LZ Gator, a base of operations in Quang Ngai Province, near the coast of the South China Sea. A book by Tim O’Brien, a soldier who was in his company, describes the place: “LZ Gator was home to 700 or 800 American soldiers, mostly grunts. I remember a tar helipad, a mess hall, a medical station, mortar and artillery emplacements, two volleyball courts, numerous barracks and offices and supply depots and machine shops and entertainment clubs. Gator was our castle. Not safe, exactly, but far preferable to the bush. No land mines here. No paddies bubbling with machine-gun fire.”

Their company got back to the base once a month or so for three or four days to relax, blow off steam, take hot showers and eat warm meals. The rest of the time they spent out in the bush.

That’s where things were really rough. Once Rodger was pinned down for a whole night in one of those rice paddies bubbling with machine gun. While he was a radio operator, he had to carry not only the heavy radio, but also his rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition, and his chow. On one mission he walked 18 miles in three days carrying all that stuff. After a week or so fighting on Batangan Peninsula, he started going to church and wore a cross around his neck.

He probably got a morale boost at the end of May when his home-town friend, Charlie Reefer, was assigned to his company.

Rodger treasured the “care packages” he got from home. In one letter he thanked his mom for the cookies she had sent, and told her that it had rained hard right after they arrived. He says he ate them with a spoon. Rather than having cookies and cream, he had cookies and water.

His letters were filled with thoughts and dreams about what he would do when he came home. Before he went to Vietnam, he owned a Harley 350 motorcycle. His dream was to buy a bigger bike when he got back.

Unfortunately, that dream was to remain a dream forever. He was killed on July 16, 1969, the second of three men from the small community of Jamestown, PA, to die in Vietnam within a two-month period.

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Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

Lt. Commander Earl Paul McBride

Volant, PA

U.S. Navy – Vietnam

On May 12, 1966, the aircraft carrier USS Constitution was deployed to the South China Sea carrying Fighter Squadron VF-161 , “The Chargers,” with their McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighters. Lieutenant Commander Earl Paul McBride of Volant was an 18-year veteran assigned to Fighter The Chargers.

During their 111 days in support of combat operations in Vietnam, they flew 1368 combat sorties against roads, bridges, and other targets to slow down the movement of North Vietnamese soldiers and materials to the south. For this action the squadron was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation medal.

Before returning to San Diego in December, 1966, the Chargers had lost 15 aircraft and 16 aircrewmen. One of those was Lt. Commander McBride.

On his last mission on October 22, 1966, his plane went missing over the South China Sea. His body was never recovered. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and extraordinary achievement for that last flight.

His daughter Roseanne posted this on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund site: “I was only 12 when my father left my life. We tried for years to find him and after 34 years we finally found his co-pilot who was also searching for us. After all these years, this kind man put to rest our fears that our father was captured or died in pain. Bless him, for he has now put peace in our hearts and we can put our father to rest (even tho the Navy says he is missing in action). Bless all those who served our country and gave up the ultimate, their lives. They are not gone as long as we remember them.”

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Thomas R. Marshall

Sandy Lake, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

When Sgt. Thomas R. Marshall of Sandy Lake, PA, wrote home from Vietnam, he didn’t write about the horrors of war. He wrote about how beautiful the country and the people were. That’s not surprising, because he was an artist at heart. It takes an artist to focus on the beauty that can often be found in the midst of ugliness.

He enlisted in the army while he was a student at the Shenango Campus of Penn State University. According to his brother, Malcolm, he had received several draft notices and just got tired of being harassed. That was in June, 1968, two years after he had graduated from Lakeview High School in Sandy Lake.

“He was a very good artist,” Malcolm said. “He had a very bright future. And he was a super nice guy. He married Tracy Clark from Stoneboro a couple of weeks before he deployed.”

Tom took Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He went on to graduate from Non-Commissioned Officer School at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He headed for Vietnam on June 18, 1969, and was assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division in Tay Ninh Province, near the Cambodian border. As time went on, it should have been an optimistic time for troops in Vietnam. On November 3, 1969, in a major policy speech on Vietnam, President Richard Nixon made a major announcement:

“We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As South Vietnamese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.”

Withdrawal of American forces, including the 25th Infantry Division, did proceed. So did the intense combat, and the continuing deaths of American soldiers – including Sgt. Marshall, who was killed by small arms fire on December 11, 1969.

He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm D. Marshall of Sandy Lake; his wife, Tracy; three sisters and a brother.

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John H. Lopochonsky, Jr.

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Nine months after graduating from Greenville High School in 1969, John Lopochonsky was drafted into the army. After training to be a helicopter door gunner, he headed to Vietnam in October, 1970 to serve with A Troop, 7th Squadron, 1st Cavalry.
He was assigned as a gunner on an OH-6A “Cayuse” helicopter. That put awesome power at his fingertips, probably 7.62 mm six-barrel minigun, a Gatling-type weapon that could fire at the rate of more than 2000 rounds per minute.

But to use that power, a gunner had to be both crazy and courageous. When teamed on a combat mission with a Cobra gunship, the Cayuse’s mission was to fly in low over suspected enemy positions to draw out their fire so the crew could mark their positions. Then the Cobra would come in with greater firepower and destroy them.

In other words, the Cayuse helicopters were sometimes used like moving ducks in a carnival shooting gallery. But unlike those ducks which flop over when hit with a b-b, the Cayuse could take a lot of serious hits and still take its crew home safely. One of them accumulated 1,340 combat hours, was shot down four times, and had two non-combat accidents. It was repaired every time, and in the end returned to the United States where it performed well for the New York National Guard.

Sgt. Lopochonsky wasn’t so fortunate. During his last mission, the Cayuse he was in crashed after taking too many hits. Before it crashed, however, Sgt. Lopochonsky proved that his core characteristic was ultimate courage. His Bronze Star citation, awarded posthumously, states that “he distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions, Volunteering for recon after the scout team came under intensive fire. . . . On a run over a heavily fortified enemy bunker, Lopochonsky completely exposed himself to enemy fire as he destroyed 5 buildings, one bunker, and four sampans.”

Sgt. Lopochonsky was survived by his brother James, and his grandmother, Mildred Artman.

He was the 37th Mercer County serviceman to die in the Vietnam War.

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Terrence Kuzak

Farrell, PA

Marine Corps – Vietnam

Many people have heard of the Bridge over the River Kwai because of the popular 1957 movie starring Alec Guinness. Set in World War II, it shows British and American prisoners of war building a magnificent bridge with great engineering but few other resources, then destroying it. The movie’s stirring theme song was played by practically every high school and college band in the country.

Because of the excellence of the movie, few people realize that the story is entirely fictional. Surpassing it in every way was the very real Liberty Bridge across the Thu Bon River 80 miles south of Da Nang. Built in 1967 by Navy Seabees (nickname based on the pronunciation of C-B, for Construction Battalion) , under constant harassment from enemy forces, it was 2,040 feet long, 32 feet above the low water level.

Before its completion, all traffic on Route 1 south of Da Nang had to be ferried across the river one vehicle at a time. This slowed convoys literally to a standstill, and set each truck out as a slow-moving target. Because of its vital strategic role, the Viet Cong attacked the bridge constantly to destroy it or control it.

The mission to defend it was given to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. That was the unit to which Marine Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was assigned when he arrived in Vietnam on July 28, 1969. He undoubtedly heard stories about the tremendous battle around the bridge that took place on March 19, 1969, when a battalion-sized enemy force attacked a little after midnight. That day, a Navy corpsman named David R. Ray was killed while relentlessly disregarding his own safety to save others. For that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Command Chronology of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines for 9 December 1969, the day that Lance Corporal Kuzak was wounded, includes the following entry: “0930H – While on sweep at AT849546 Co F tripped a boobytrap consisting of 60mm w/trip wire, resulting in 1 Priority-Evac. Medevac wall called and completed.” Although the chronology doesn’t mention Lance Corporal Kuzak by name, that was the only entry on that mentioned a casualty.

Kuzak survived evacuation to a naval hospital in Yokosura, Japan. During his fight to recover there, his doctors appealed to the folks back home to flood him with cards and letters to keep up his spirits. But he died on Christmas Eve, 1969.

Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was the only child of Michael and Ann Ciccarone Kuzak, R.D. 1 West Middlesex. He was a 1969 graduate of Farrell High School.

Lance Corporal Kuzak was the 31st Mercer County serviceman to be killed in the Vietnam War.

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Eric Knauf

Eric’s graduation picture

Greenville

U.S. Army – Vietnam

In 1969, a year after graduating from Greenville High School, Eric Knauf enlisted in the army “because it was the right thing to do.” During his initial testing, he qualified for helicopter flight school.

“They told me the washout rate was very high,” he said, “and then a very high death rate if you didn’t wash out. I said that’s okay.”

After training, Warrant Officer Knauf was assigned to an air cav unit in the Mekong Delta. At Christmas time, the unit moved us up to Quang Tri Province, by the DMZ.”

There they participated in Operation Lam Son 719, a major invasion of Laos by the South Vietnamese Army, with aerial support from the U. S. Army.

Knauf, Eric

“All we did all day, every day was go out and get into a fight,” he said.

A helicopter would fly into known enemy territory to draw fire. Other gunships would follow them in and attack the positions from which the enemy was firing.

“Our mission was to go find them and shoot as many as we could and come home at the end of the day.”

But as he had been warned, the casualty rate for helicopter pilots and crew was high indeed. Some days not everyone came home. On February 27, 1971, that included Eric Knauf.

“We were trying to get two pilots out of Laos,” he said. “The first rescue mission got shot down. We went in right behind them and got shot down, too. Another mission was able to get us out. The first two pilots are still listed as missing in action.”

Air assault team

Besides offensive missions, they also had to defend their base at Khe Sanh.

“They would fire mortars on us every night. We mounted C-130 landing lights and a minigun on a helicopter. When we saw the mortar flash, we would light up the whole area and hit the minigun. Their position disappeared, trees and all.”

Eric was one of the fortunate ones. He survived an astounding 1318 flight hours, including 1081 in combat. From that he accumulated what he calls a bunch of junk in this basement that includes three Distinguished Flying Crosses, a pile of Bronze Stars and Air Medals (31 of the former, 36 of the latter, including three for valor), and a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Eric served four more years in the National Guard flying Cobras with an air cav unit in Washington, PA.

Terrance Edwin Klaric

Klaric, Terrence

Farrell, PA

U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

During his first Vietnam tour in 1965, Lance Cpl. Terence Edwin Klaric was severely wounded. After spending more than a year in a hospital in the United States, he volunteered to return to Vietnam. In December, 1966, he was assigned to the Combined Action Program with Headquarters Battalion of the 3rd Marine division, in Quang Tri, the northernmost province in South Vietnam.

At that time in the CAP, a Marine rifle squad and a Navy Hospital Corpsman would live in a village and work with a Popular Force platoon to provide security against the Viet Cong. The objective was to develop the Vietnamese forces to the point where they could protect the village by themselves. They also helped the villagers with humanitarian aid, such as digging wells, building schools, and the development of other humanitarian projects.

With only about a dozen men, far from any units that could provide quick support, the teams were extremely vulnerable to enemy attack. Many were overrun, often with few or no survivors.

As to Lance Corporal Klaric’s actual role in this, we know little other than the fact that he was killed on May 5, 1967, probably by an enemy grenade.

The Headquarters Battalion Command Chronology covering May 1967 covers such items as the opening of a new mess hall on May 7 for sergeants and below, with an enlisted club attached. Lance Cpl. Klaric might have enjoyed that, if he had still been alive.

The report also details the work of the Dental unit – 5365 procedures on 2304 Vietnamese patients, and the distribution of precisely 1027 toothbrushes.

Recorded for posterity is the fact that the headquarters communications center processed a total of 45,922 messages during that month of May.

What the report doesn’t include is any details about actual combat operations, other than a terse listing of the unit’s casualties: 7 officers wounded in action, 5 enlisted men killed in action, 50 enlisted men wounded in action. Names of those casualties are not included; but we know that one of those enlisted men was Lance Corporal Klaric.

Other than that fact, of course, none of the other details matters to his parents, Farrell residents Peter and Edith Parker; or to his two sisters and five brothers.

Lance Corporal Klaric was the seventh man from Mercer County and the second from Farrell to be killed in action in Vietnam.

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Merle Robert Higgins

Jamestown, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Trying to find information about a particular Vietnam fatality is a hit or miss operation. You have to start with the basic facts about the incident you are trying to find.

For example, you could know this about Merle Higgins: arrived in Vietnam on January 5, 1969; assigned to the 25th Infantry Division’s 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry (the “Manchus”); died of multiple fragmentation wounds received on June 5, 1969.

Then you search the Internet for his name, the unit, the date, the location, and anything else you can think of. After coming up dry, you are about to give up when you hit on a document called “Our Manchu Diary.” Forty-four pages long, it contains day-to-day troop movements, field operations, battles, casualties, and remembrances of from 1966 through 1970.

About half-way through, there it is:

“June 5 1969- Charlie Company reported VC in the bunker line; . . . Alpha Company reports that farmers in area said three VC companies moved out of Cambodia at 0300 hours into the Renegade Woods. Delta Company receiving small arms and RPG fire. Dust-off “163” completed (14 Delta WIA casualties) . . . . Sgt Higgins (Bravo Company) was seriously wounded by a claymore mine that was detonated by a sniper—died the next day [06-June-69] at the 45th Surgical Hospital.”

A claymore mine is a curved rectangular weapon, about 8.5 inches wide by five inches high, that projects about 700 steel balls in an arc of about 60 degrees. It certainly produces “multiple fragmentation wounds.”

Sgt. Higgins was born in Farmdale, OH. At the end of Merle’s 5th grade year, the family relocated to Jamestown, PA. After graduating from Pymatuning Joint High School in 1965, he attended Thiel College before entering the army in February 1969. He was survived by his parents, Ellis R. and Ruth Anderson Higgins, and two sisters, Marian and Nelly.

In the spring of 1992, his family established the “Merle R. Higgins Freedom Award” fund at Jamestown High School, not only to honor Merle, but also to remind people that freedom is not a cheap commodity. lt is a fragile ideal that only exists because of the suffering and sacrifice of brave men and women. This award is given annually to two deserving seniors (one male/one female) based on the character qualities of courage, honor, loyalty, determination and service.

Sgt. Higgins was the first Jamestown soldier to die in Vietnam within a two-month period.

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