By Elisabeth Sherwin/Enterprise staff writer
Published Feb 25, 2007 - 18:05:58 CST.
In the course of researching the stories of area veterans who died in service, Ted Puntillo discovered that some had been overlooked.
Puntillo, veterans service representative for Yolo County, and county Supervisor Matt Rexroad want to make sure that doesn't happen again.
They came up with the idea recently to document the stories of all Yolo County veterans who died in active duty in what is being called the War Memorial Project. At first, Puntillo was in favor of telling the stories of every man listed on the memorial that stands in front of the county courthouse.
But in the course of some early research at the Yolo County Archives, Puntillo discovered that several names have inadvertently been left off the stone slab, including World War I veterans Ernest Billings, killed in action on Nov. 1, 1918, and Thomas Johnson, killed in action on Aug. 12, 1918.
He says more research is necessary to find out just how many have been overlooked on the permanent memorial. Plus, he said, Yolo County has veterans from the War of 1812, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War who are not memorialized.
He said the Yolo County Library archives center on Buckeye Street has a cache of information, including four huge books of newspaper clippings and obituaries representing those lost during World Wars I and II.
“Somebody spent a long time collecting and maintaining those records,” he said Friday.
It was on Veterans' Day that Puntillo and Rexroad, both veterans, held a public ceremony to unveil a new monument honoring three men lost in recent wars. The old monument in front of the county courthouse was full and there was only room for one of the three new names.
The three new names are: Alvin E. Crane, Jimmy Arroyave Sr. and Neil Roberts.
The new monument should be large enough for another 100 names, Puntillo said, adding that he hopes that will carry Yolo County through the next several centuries.
U.S. Air Force First Lt. Crane died in 1951 in the Korean War, but his remains were missing until 2005, according to his sister, Shirley Romalia. His remains were laid to rest beside his mother and father in Santa Rosa on May 13, 2006, 55 years after his T6 reconnaissance plane went down.
“To us, as the family, it is a homecoming - and especially this honor in Woodland, which (Crane) considered his home - he would have been so proud of this,” Romalia said at the ceremony.
Crane's name was added to the list of those who were killed in the Korean War, carved into a slab of polished granite in front of the Yolo County Courthouse, 725 Court St. in Woodland.
A second, smaller slab was added in front of the existing monument. There, the names two other Woodland men killed during wartime are first under the heading “War on Terror.”
James Rose came to the podium on Veterans' Day to talk about his nephew, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Arroyave, who died in Iraq.
Arroyave was on his second tour of duty with his wife pregnant with his son when he was killed, Rose said.
“It was a devastating loss,” he said.
Blair McAnelly read letters sent by her brother, Petty Officer 1st Class Roberts, U.S. Navy SEALs, who died in Afghanistan.
“For all the times I was cold, wet, sore, hungry ... I had a blast,” she read. “If I die doing something for the team, then I die doing something I love. Few people have that opportunity.”
McAnelly said her brother was a dedicated SEAL who never doubted what he was doing.
Rexroad feels strongly that servicemen who have made the ultimate sacrifice should not be forgotten.
Most of the people in Woodland know about Arroyave and Roberts because their deaths were recent events, he said.
“But what about the others? It's amazing how little we know about them other than their names,” he said.
Puntillo recruited Sara Hay, a history student from UC Davis, to help research local newspapers and to put together some basic biographical information about the lost men.
“It is our hope that as a result of the articles in the newspapers, some of the families of the fallen - families that are still in the area - will contact us to let us record their histories. I will get a list of the names and post them on the Veterans' Memorial part of this Web page,” Rexroad said on his blog.
“If you have any information about them, let us know,” he added.
A special e-mail address has been set up for those who would like to submit information about county veterans: yolomemorialproject@gmail.com
Hay has collected information about Davis residents killed during the Vietnam War, including James R. Nash, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nash, who died on April 14, 1968. Nash turned 21 about a month before his death.
Born in Davis, he graduated from Davis High School in 1965, where he played on the basketball team. He also was fond of hunting and fishing. In the summer of 1965, Nash went to Japan for three months through a Lions Club youth exchange program.
He enlisted in the Army in July 1967. According to Nash's father, his son was eager to help the Vietnamese free themselves from years of oppression. He wrote home describing the pathos he felt at seeing people who had fought so long for freedom yet were still surrounded by the cruelty of war.
Nash died from wounds suffered while in combat 20 to 30 miles from Cu Chi in South Vietnam.
Other Davis residents claimed by the Vietnam War include John Barovetto, Wayne C. Reinecke and James P. Galvin.
Galvin died on Dec. 1, 1966, at Clark Air Force Base Hospital in the Philippines.
He had served almost a year in Vietnam where he was stationed aboard the Corpus Christi Bay, a helicopter tender at Cam Chan Bay.
He developed a brain tumor and was flown to Clark Air Force base for surgery.
His father, William P. Calvin, a lecturer in the French and Italian department at UC Davis, was flown to the Philippines by the Army and arrived 10 hours before his son died.
Galvin, who served as company clerk, was a member of a team of four frogmen aboard the helicopter tender. It was the team's job to carry out routine hull inspections as a safeguard against magnetic mines. They also rescued or salvaged helicopters shot down in the water.
Rexroad, Puntillo and Hay want the stories of all veterans to be remembered.
“We are in the information-gathering stage,” Rexroad said. “A lot of these people did a lot for the community and have cool stories. Now is the time to collect that information before memories fade. It is my intent to make sure their stories are preserved.”
- Reach Elisabeth Sherwin at gizmo@dcn.org |
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