Remembrance of Things Past

Today he would have been 59.
Joe Marasco, a high school friend, was the only close aquaintance of mine to be killed in Vietnam. He took a leave from Springfield College, sometime before graduating to join the army. I never quite understood why.
He was a wrestler in high school, not a big guy but very strong and very principled.
In Vietnam, he was a dog-handler – the person who takes a dog out into the jungle to sniff out the enemy. I looked on the Internet and found this account of his death.

After a long night we had a Mad Minute just before daybreak. It seems to me that I was sitting on the berm of a foxhole looking in and 2LT Hendrixson was facing out. It was then he said that he thought he saw a gook climbing down a tree. Sure enough, mortars came soon after.

A Tracker Team was called in. I remember working forward with the tracker (he did not have a dog with him.) A break was called, and just as I sat down the tracker was hit by AK fire. He was only 10 feet in front of me. I believe I was with 3rd Platoon when this went down. I remember helping to give first aid. The tracker had 17 days left in country. However, he was Line One upon arrival to Tay Ninh. ( Line One meant killed in action.) (Source: Charlie Dickey) PFC Joseph A. Marasco died while attached to C 2/5 Cav, and we consider him one of our own.

Joe died on July 22, 1969.