We mourn, we remember

Then Major Kevin Shea was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004.

Dear Readers,

PFC Thomas J. Bayes, 19, of Whitestone, N.Y., was killed in action in Vietnam, April 7, 1968. A few days after his June 1967 graduation from high school, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Following boot camp, he deployed to Okinawa and from there went to Vietnam.

For the last several years, Paul G. Bayes has sent the obituary of his younger brother, Thomas, into the Leatherneck office, hoping we will publish it in the magazine. Private First Class Thomas J. Bayes was killed in Vietnam while serving with 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines 50 years ago. And his brother, himself a Navy veteran, remembers.

Several of the thousands of awards the Marine Corps Association & Foundation presents each year are namesake awards, presented in honor of outstanding Marines who made a significant impact on the Corps.

One such award is the LtCol Kevin Shea Memorial Unit of the Year Award given in honor of then-Major Shea who was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004.

His wife, Ami, and their children, daughter, Second Lieutenant Brenna Shea, and son, Michael, often attend the award presentation to the deserving unit in honor of their husband and father. They remember.

Corporal Jesse Jamie was serving with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom when his vehicle hit an Improvised Explosive Device on June 15, 2005. He and several other Marines in his squad were killed. His twin brother, Cpl Joel Jamie, also a member of 1/5, escorted his brother’s body home. He remembers.

Anyone who has spent any time wearing the uniform of this nation knows that it’s not just in war that we lose Marines. Ours is a dangerous profession whether in peace or in conflict, and we often are reminded of that in the harshest of ways. On March 20, 1989, a CH-53D crashed near Pohang, South Korea, during Exercise Team Spirit-89.

The helicopter was carrying members of “Charlie” Co, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

Nineteen Marines were killed. Among the dead was my good friend, Second Lieutenant Darren M. Bell. I remember.

Staff Sergeant Enrico A. Rojo was heading home for Christmas on Dec. 16, 2016, when he witnessed a car accident on his way to the airport. He stopped to help the victim and was struck and killed by another vehicle. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Marine Corps Medal. His family remembers.

Those who raised them; who served with them, who befriended them—we all remember. And we still mourn. Not just on Memorial Day but every day. The pain may lessen but it never truly goes away and the memories are still there. We appreciate their sacrifice and know that not only “freedom isn’t free,” but that the cost is so very high, and that high cost is often paid by the young.

PFC Bayes was 19. Cpl Jamie was 22. 2ndLt Bell was 23. SSgt Rojo was 29. Maj Shea was the “old man” of the group—he was killed on Sept. 14, 2004, his 38th birthday.

There is comfort in knowing that the Marines we lost are mourned by their own families and friends and also by their Marine family. Whether a rack mate from boot camp or a fellow lieutenant on deployment or a leatherneck who fought so valiantly side by side with his fellow Marines in the sands of Iraq, those who served with the fallen also keep their memories alive and remember.

Leatherneck readers need no reminder as to the sanctity of Memorial Day; they not only know its true meaning, they live its spirit each and every day. So, this is not a reminder but rather a shared remembrance of those Marines who, although no longer with us, helped us truly understand the meaning of “Semper Fidelis.”

Mary H. Reinwald, Colonel, USMC (Ret)

(Reprinted courtesy of the Marine Corps Association & Foundation)