The VietNam Veterans Memorial Wall Message Board

Roger Shrewsberry and his Lt
. . Contributed By Michael Myers On Tuesday, June 11, 2002
By: Michael Stephen Myers PO Box 573 Trinidad, California 95570 (707) 502-0506 A letter to the Trinidad Civic Club and to my friends and neighbors; Today I read an article about the Memorial Day service that is sponsored by the Trinidad Civic club. It is held at the memorial lighthouse and seems to be an annual event. I am all for this and do think that the fine men memorialized in this service should be recognized for their service to their family, to their profession and to their community. The problem I am having with this is in the Civic Club's choice of timing for holding the service. The trend seems to be to use Memorial Day as a day of remembrance for policemen, firemen, postmen, teachers, fishermen and now anyone that may be considered to be someone's personal hero. Personally, I think we are confusing the situation here although I do understand that many good people die while performing heroic deeds such as saving someone who is drowning or protecting a student from being killed. But when we use such a day as Memorial Day for these remembrances aren't we forgetting something? Now before anyone begins to consider these words let me tell you a story about a young man I once knew. Roger Shrewsberry was a seventeen-year old. He loved many of the same things a seventeen-year old boy loves today. Girls, cars, movies and going to the beach with his friends. He was raised in a time when patriotism was everything and when Memorial Day was to honor those who had fallen in the defense of freedom in places like Normandy, Iwo Jima, Leyte Gulf and Bastogne. His heroes were people like Davy Crockett, Sgt. York and Audie Murphy. And the heroes of the big screen like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart influenced him. And soon he would be faced with his destiny. I first met Roger Shrewsberry when I was a young lieutenant in Vietnam. He was there with his best friend, Steve Masao Ohara, a Korean American just one year older than Roger. These were two of the finest people I had ever met and at just 21 I was like their older brother rather than their lieutenant. I remember they were inseparable, always side by side in everything they did. If one volunteered you knew the other would be standing alongside. Ohara was Roger's squad leader and they had made a personal vow to not leave the other one behind if something should happen to either of them. The last time I saw either of them in that particular state was the night before their deaths. My last vision that night was of the two of them grinning and laughing so hard you would have forgotten we were in a war. The mission we were on was to locate some enemy soldiers who had fired rockets into the large base at Chu Lai in the northern most regions of South Vietnam. Our unit was the lead unit and as rangers we were to make the initial contact with the enemy and assess the situation. The contact was almost immediate as the North Vietnamese soldiers were dug in deep and were obviously not in any hurry to leave their position. 1968 was the bloodiest year of the war and the fighting was so intense that the Stars & Stripes Newspaper did a report of the battle. The battle itself went on for more than eight hours, an entire day, before we were able to extricate the enemy from their fortifications. The toll was high with more than 12 Americans killed and many more wounded. Roger and Steve were the only two men lost from my platoon. My platoon made contact with a machine gun nest that sat hidden on a heavy foliated hillside. The gun was in such a strategic position that it was able to do the most damage to our troops as they crawled forward. No sooner than one of our men would begin to move I could see the gun open up and begin chewing them to pieces. I knew we had to do something and called Ohara over to me. I told him to move with his squad over the hill on our right and see if he could flank that gun. The problem was that the gun was so well hidden we didn't know its exact location. I told him to be careful and to stay low - to keep his head down. Shrewsberry was at his side. My platoon sergeant went with him leaving me with the remaining two squads. The last time I saw them alive was as they crawled over the ridge and into the trees. It took them only a few minutes to find the gunner's position. As they moved forward the gunner opened up hitting Ohara in the chest killing him instantly. Shrewsberry immediately crawled forward to his friend whose body lay just a few feet from the hidden gun. Roger was only seventeen yet he acted like a man that day. He fulfilled every American's destiny as he crawled forward in the face of death and danger. It was not an accident or unexpected result of service to people but instead was an expected and highly probable sacrifice. He continued moving forward toward a gun that was spitting bullets in his direction. He continued forward when the human's natural response is to run away. He stayed low in the tall grass alongside his friend's body. He got close enough to whisper his name but got no response. He crawled closer and reached out to his friend grabbing his harness - and he did what he had come to do - he pulled. When Roger made his vow with his friend he meant it. He knew about the defense of freedom and he knew about dying. And due to the thousands of American fighting men in past wars he was well prepared to die for his country. The Navy Seal who died in Afghanistan carried a letter to his wife in case of his death. It said he knew he could die and that he died in the defense of freedom and for his men. Roger was also faced with this probability yet he continued forward. What kept him going was duty, duty to his country, to freedom and to his friend. As he pulled on his friend's harness his head lifted just enough for the gunner to take aim. It was the next morning before I was able to recover their bodies. Ohara was lying on his back and his good friend Roger was lying face down across his chest. I put every ounce of Ranger training I had ever received into tracking and finding the people who had done this. When I finally spotted them climbing the next hill I had a sniper kill one of them and when the other one hid in the bushes I called for an air strike on his position. We cheered as the entire hilltop was burned with napalm. We found the bodies where they lay, burned beyond recognition. That day as we tended to the bodies of Roger and Steve each remaining member of the platoon came forward and quietly paid their respects. Not many words were spoken, but you could tell they were all deeply affected. We carefully loaded their bodies onto the evacuation helicopter and quietly watched as the choppers banked off the hilltop. The crew chief had handed me an envelope and upon opening it I discovered orders awarding Steve Ohara the Bronze Star for heroism in a previous battle. I passed it around to the men and one by one they quietly read the award. The choppers carrying our friend's bodies could still be heard in the distance. Roger Shrewsberry of Washington and Steve Masao Ohara of California were just two of the many thousands of American boys who became men for their country and for the causes of freedom. Roger kept his word to his friend and together they left that mountaintop. Roger died heroically and with dignity and here I am a fifty-five year old father and grandfather. These young men that gave their lives in a moment of destiny and glory should always be remembered on this day. In honor of their deaths I have always tried to live my life in dignity. I can only hope to be as brave on my last day. I once learned something from my Shoshone brothers in Idaho. The difference between a warrior and a brave is that a warrior has touched his enemy. This day should remain as it was created - a day in remembrance of our fallen warriors. Dear friends, that is what Memorial Day is all about. Not for other good causes such as people that we have lost for whatever reasons. I am sure they were good people and I think it is wonderful that you remember them but I must ask that we remember what Memorial Day is all about and we need to give the honors when and where they are due. In the names of Corporal Roger Shrewsberry, Sergeant Steve Masao Ohara, Lieutenant William L. Menconi, Sergeant First Class Leroy Ferguson, Corporal William Harris, Captain John Bernard Hurtado and the many other young American faces I remember. In their honor and in honor of their ultimate sacrifices I ask this and like a good soldier I ask that you keep this special day on the highest grounds of honor. Michael Stephen Myers 1Lt Company C 1st of the 6th Infantry Battalion 198th Light Infantry Brigade 23rd Americal Division Vietnam - 1968-69