Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.
Sonny Mitchell, Bob Luebke, John Morgan and Leroy Meeks understand that war is hell. It can destroy you mentally, physically and emotionally. But every hardship has its saving grace, and for three years in Vietnam, they had one another.
When the four members of the 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division served together at An Hao 38 years ago, they didn’t fully understand how much they would rely on each other for the rest of their lives, Mitchell said.
“Looking back, I think our relationship with each other — I don’t really think we knew we were doing it, but it helped make us more stable,” Mitchell said.
Stability wasn’t easy to find when a Marine returned home after serving in a very controversial war, Morgan said. “We went over as an individual and came back as an individual and you sometimes got spit on or called a ‘baby killer’ when you came home just because of what went on over there,” Morgan added.
Meeks admitted he felt a great deal of bitterness after he returned home from Vietnam. “I feel slightly betrayed by our own government that we didn’t accomplish what we were sent out to do,” Meeks said.
“A lot of people lost their lives — a lot of young people like myself to free people…. We lost so many good people.” Meeks said there’s an old saying in the Marines that the readjustment period going back to civilian life is five years to never. “I’m probably still sitting somewhere between that never and five years,” Meeks said. Luebke said his experience of returning to his hometown of Petoskey, Mich. after his tour of duty underscored the veracity of Thomas Wolfe’s famous observation, “You can’t go home again.” “What I left wasn’t there no more,” Luebke said.
So Luebke went to visit his dear friend Sonny at his Greensboro home and essentially never left. Luebke and Mitchell see each other all the time but when the quartet of war buddies reunited at Mitchell’s home earlier this month, it represented the first time they had all been together in nearly four decades. They lounged by Mitchell’s backyard pool, looked at old photos and reminisced about serving their country in a foreign land.
“The camaraderie like these fellas right here — it’s a bond that will never be broken,” Meeks said. “These men right here mean more to me than anything in this world. It’s an experience I wouldn’t take anything for but I would never do it again.”
All four Marines drew parallels between
page 24
Sonny Mitchell, Bob Luebke, John Morgan and Leroy Meeks understand that war is hell. It can destroy you mentally, physically and emotionally. But every hardship has its saving grace, and for three years in Vietnam, they had one another.
When the four members of the 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division served together at An Hao 38 years ago, they didn’t fully understand how much they would rely on each other for the rest of their lives, Mitchell said.
“Looking back, I think our relationship with each other — I don’t really think we knew we were doing it, but it helped make us more stable,” Mitchell said.
Stability wasn’t easy to find when a Marine returned home after serving in a very controversial war, Morgan said. “We went over as an individual and came back as an individual and you sometimes got spit on or called a ‘baby killer’ when you came home just because of what went on over there,” Morgan added.
Meeks admitted he felt a great deal of bitterness after he returned home from Vietnam. “I feel slightly betrayed by our own government that we didn’t accomplish what we were sent out to do,” Meeks said.
“A lot of people lost their lives — a lot of young people like myself to free people…. We lost so many good people.” Meeks said there’s an old saying in the Marines that the readjustment period going back to civilian life is five years to never. “I’m probably still sitting somewhere between that never and five years,” Meeks said. Luebke said his experience of returning to his hometown of Petoskey, Mich. after his tour of duty underscored the veracity of Thomas Wolfe’s famous observation, “You can’t go home again.” “What I left wasn’t there no more,” Luebke said.
So Luebke went to visit his dear friend Sonny at his Greensboro home and essentially never left. Luebke and Mitchell see each other all the time but when the quartet of war buddies reunited at Mitchell’s home earlier this month, it represented the first time they had all been together in nearly four decades. They lounged by Mitchell’s backyard pool, looked at old photos and reminisced about serving their country in a foreign land.
“The camaraderie like these fellas right here — it’s a bond that will never be broken,” Meeks said. “These men right here mean more to me than anything in this world. It’s an experience I wouldn’t take anything for but I would never do it again.”
All four Marines drew parallels between
page 24
