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Five who served
By MARY EVERTZ © St. Petersburg Times, published May 29, 2001
Occasionally, he glances at the shadow box on the wall. It contains mementos from other times, other places. On a field of green velvet rest his medals: a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Medal. "This was given to me when I retired from the military," says Lucas, 63, who is quick to point out he doesn't dwell in the past. "The most important days are today and tomorrow." The graduate of West Point and career Army officer was 24 when he volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1964. With the words of Napoleon spurring him on ("March to the sounds of the guns, for there the glory lies"), Lucas arrived in Quang Tri that December. His assignment: to advise and serve with Vietnamese infantry units. He volunteered to return to Vietnam for a second tour of duty in 1971. This time he was involved in the Easter invasion of 1972. His mission was to open Highway 13 into An Loc. "I was the only American with the Vietnamese Bn, and I wanted to record my impressions. So many were being killed that I was not sure I was going to come out alive. I was lucky. A lot of my comrades were not," he says. Every day, Lucas wrote to his wife, Marjorie. On April 17, 1972, his letter read:
Lucas often thinks of Ron Storz, one of 60 Americans who lived in the compound with him at Quang Tri. Storz, an Air Force captain, flew his reconnaissance plane on a routine flight from Deng Ha to Quang Tri on April 28, 1965. Lucas' diary reports Storz missing on that date, and on ensuing days it notes that the "search continues for Storz." It was five years later that Lucas saw Storz' name in the New York Times on a list of prisoner-of-war dead made public in Paris by the North Vietnamese. Capt. Ronald Edward Storz died April 23, 1970, five years after capture. Alma van de Steeg
After training at Fort Dix, N.J., she found herself on a ship heading to the South Pacific. In her scrapbook is a yellowed newspaper clipping from the Nov. 12, 1942, Evening Bulletin-Philadelphia showing a photo of the first 18 nurses arriving in New Guinea. She was in the group. Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur's headquarters were nearby at Oivi on New Guinea. Van de Steeg, now 83, remembers vividly the huge red cross on the roof of the hospital and the Japanese bombing it anyway. She recalls the nurses running outside to the trenches to safety only to find they were already occupied by cowering doctors who reluctantly moved over to make room for the young women. She met an enlisted man, a sergeant in the Army, and had to get special permission from her commanding officer in order to marry him. Alma and Jack van de Steeg were married in Sydney, Australia. She was sent back to the United States when she became pregnant with the first of their seven children. The hand of her third child, son Gerrit, is also on the flag. He served in the Army during Vietnam.
With five sons, two daughters, seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and an active volunteer schedule, van de Steeg admits she rarely thinks of those days in World War II. Bernard and Neil RocheTwo more of the hands on the flag belong to the artist's father and brother. Bernard Roche was 17 and living with his family in Lawrence, Mass., when he signed up in the Enlisted Reserve Corps. "They called me for active duty in March 1945 . . . the United States was preparing for the invasion of Japan," he recalls. Roche, 74, was home on leave when the United States dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. When he went back to the base, he got orders his unit was moving out for Japan. After attending 11th Airborne jump school in Sendai, Japan, Roche spent the next 14 months there with the occupational forces. Many times, he recalls, "We forced the Japanese soldiers out of their bunkers -- they didn't know the war had ended." Roche moved his family to St. Petersburg in 1952 and for many years ran a printing business. He is now retired. For a few years after he served in Vietnam, Neil Roche, 52, says he hooked up with other veterans to mark Memorial Day. As time has passed he has found it increasingly difficult to think about the war and has attempted to put Vietnam behind him. Roche, who is the director of the cardiorespiratory department at Bothwell Regional Health Center in Sedalia, Mo., was 19 and a recent graduate of then Bishop Barry High School when he enlisted in the Army. After training, he became a paratrooper. Roche was sent to An Khe, Vietnam, as a member of Delta Company, Third Battalion of the 173rd Airborne. He served there with the 1st Cavalry until an injury brought him back to the United States. Leah Chappell
Chappell, now 79, also saw duty in Vietnam, where she was stationed at Long Bihn in1971-72. Veterans of Foreign Wars records indicate about 1,200 women served in Vietnam in roles other than nursing. Of those, only about 700 were members of the Women's Army Corps. Chappell recalls ordering one of her junior officers to dispose of some Agent Orange which was stored at Long Bihn.
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