REFLECTIONS of
VIE TNAM
HONORING OUR LOCAL VETERANS
Photo by Harry Gerwien
O
NE DAY IN 1989, California Highway Patrolman Les Page pulled over a tractor trailer truck. The driver of the truck stepped down and looked Page over. “He said to me ‘You were a Marine weren’t you?’ and I said yes. He said ‘You were in Vietnam weren’t you’ and I said yes. He said ‘You were in Quang Tri in January, 1967’ and I said yes. Then he looks at me and says, ‘I’ve been looking for you for 22 years. You saved my life,’” recounts Page. It was the first time anyone had ever thanked him for being in Vietnam. Page enlisted in the Marine Corps before he even graduated from high school. His father, also a Marine, escorted him to the recruiter to sign a waiver because Page was only 17 at the time. Two weeks after graduation, he was in boot camp. He always knew he wanted to work with helicopters. “I worked on fixed wing aircraft for about 30 days,” he said. “Then I volunteered to be a part of the new helicopter unit.” He knew that meant he would be heading for Vietnam. Once the squadron, HMM 164 arrived in Vietnam, their assignments included inserting and extracting troops, evacuating troops that needed medical attention and resupplying military bases that were otherwise inaccessible. As an aviation mechanic, his days revolved around the “birds.” When they weren’t out on missions, their job was to make sure the helicopters were fixed and ready to fly again when TOP PHOTO: Glad to be home Summer of 1967. needed. Page remembers that over Christmas in 2ND PHOTO: A little down time with Gary Bailey at Marble Mountain, Summer of 66. 1966 his unit worked the flight line for 72 hours 3RD PHOTO: Squadron Photo Guru Richard Henderson straight. “You grabbed a nap in a chair when 4TH PHOTO: A group of ARVN’s (Army of Republic of Vietnam) loaded for insertion. you could,” he recounts. “When the birds were down, we made sure they were flyable.” “I was only supposed to be there 12 months but my tour was extended two months,” says Page. “Those were the shortest 14 months of my life. Vietnam was a life changing experience. The things you learned there were the things you fell back upon when you got back.” After he got home Page married Elaine Navarro, the girl he met on the first day of high school in 1961. They’ve been married for 48 years. He’s seen his son enlist in the Marines, and retire after 24 years of service. And now, he’s giving back to the veteran’s community in a unique way: quilting. “It’s just like woodworking except instead of wood, I use fabric. And instead of nails, I use thread,” he says. He and his wife volunteer with Quilts for Valor, an organization run completely by volunteers with a mission to cover service members and veterans with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor. Since the founding in 2003, Quilts for Valor has presented over 120,000 quilts to service members.
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