Monday, April 21, 2008
Two former Youngstown men, casualties of the Vietnam War, will be honored on the In Memory Roll of Honor.
Youngstown natives Richard Merle Buccilli and Timothy Gerard Plaskett, who lived through the Vietnam War only to have the war cause their deaths decades later, are being recognized for their ultimate sacrifices.
Buccilli and Plaskett are among those who have died prematurely as a result of their service in the Vietnam War, but who are not eligible to have their names inscribed on The Wall, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s In Memory program.
But, because of the fund’s In Memory Honor Roll, they will not be forgotten.
At 10 a.m. today, 75 casualties of the Vietnam War, including Buccilli and Plaskett, will be honored at the 10th annual In Memory Ceremony in Washington, D.C., and have their names placed with about 1,750 others similarly recognized.
Buccilli served in the Navy from 1966 to 1972 and his ship was in the Vietnam area various times between 1966 and 1969. He was nominated for the In Memory Honor Roll by his sister, Sandra Kalafut of Youngstown. He died Aug. 22, 2005, at age 56.
Plaskett, who served in the Army from October 1968 to March 1972 and in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, was nominated for the In Memory Honor Roll by his wife, Leesa Plaskett of Columbiana. He died June 9, 2003, of non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the United States to destroy the Vietcong’s forest cover and food supply. He was 53.
Here are their stories as told by their survivors.
Richard Merle Buccilli was proud of war service
YOUNGSTOWN — Buccilli often told his sister that he wanted his name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“I promised Ritchie I would try,” said Kalafut, in her 2007 letter to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, nominating her brother’s name for inclusion on The Wall.
In her letter of nomination, Sandra said her brother frequently went ashore, including to Saigon, and he was adamant about his exposure to Agent Orange.
As a reply to her brother’s nomination, she received back information about the In Memory Honor Roll, telling her Richard would be placed on the In Memory Honor Roll and inviting her to the ceremony.
Sandra said she and her husband, Atty. George Kalafut, former head of the Trumbull County Public Defender’s office, plan to attend.
“What he wanted, I want. I think he should be part of The Wall. But, In Memory gives me someplace to honor him. I did my very, very best and I’m extremely proud and thrilled,” Sandra said.
He deserves the recognition. When the government said go to war, he went, she said.
Despite the Vietnam experience, Sandra said her brother considered the six years he spent in the Navy the best days of his life and regretted that he did not re-enlist.
His enlistment included stops in Vietnam, during 1966 to 1969, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, where he was an assistant to the admiral, a job of which he was “proud beyond words,” Sandra said.
Richard was one of three brothers who were in the military about the same time during the Vietnam War.
Clifford, of Youngstown, was in the Army and saw combat in Vietnam. Robert, of Canfield, Richard’s twin, served in the Navy, she said.
Sandra and the brothers, of Cherokee and Blackfoot Indian heritage, are the children of Christopher and Geraldine Emerick Buccilli. Richard grew up in Youngstown, with the exception of a couple of years he lived in Lisbon with his aunt and uncle, Angelina and Daniel Guappone, and attended Woodrow Wilson High School. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and earned his GED (general educational development) degree while he was in the service.
When he returned home, he worked at Kroger’s grocery stores and at Standard Slag.
Sandra and Richard have the same birthday, except a year apart. He was born July 4, 1949, and she on July 4, 1950. He failed first grade because it was not realized that he needed glasses and couldn’t see well. As a consequence, the two went through school in the same grade.
Sandra said she and her brother, whom she described as easygoing, quiet and friendly, were extremely close. He was also very close to Sandra’s grandaughter and his great-niece, Leanna McKee, 5, of Boardman, with whom he shared many happy times, she said.
Richard died in Sharon, Pa., where he was living at the time, and is buried in the Hillcrest Memorial Park in Hermitage, Pa. An autopsy was not performed, so the exact cause of his death is unknown.
“My heart will never mend,” Sandra said.
Timothy Gerard Plaskett was loving husband, father
FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP — Vietnam War Army veteran Timothy G. Plaskett was diagnosed with cancer in January 2003. Six months later, on June 9, he died.
“He made it out of Vietnam alive. You didn’t think that 34 years later it would kill him,” said Leesa Plaskett, his widow.
Leesa and Timothy met in 1974, four years after he left Vietnam and two years after he was discharged from the Army. He had been living in New Orleans and came home for his father’s funeral.
“Tim’s sister, Teresa, one of my best friends in high school, introduced us. I was 18. We were married on Oct. 15, 1977, in St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Struthers, ” Leesa said.
“I really miss him. He was cremated, but I just buried his ashes at Thanksgiving 2007,” she said.
Leesa does not plan to attend today’s In Memory ceremony. “I know I couldn’t get through it.”
She went to the Laying of the Roses ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial in downtown Youngstown for the first time in 2007 and found it very difficult.
“I can’t keep reburying my husband. It’s too hard,” she said, bowing her head to hide her tears.
“It’s for the kids,” she said, explaining why she nominated him.
“Tim wouldn’t care one way or the other. He felt he didn’t do any more or less than anyone else over there,” she said.
And, it is important that these men be acknowledged. They served their country and they died for it, she said.
“We were lucky to have the extra time together. They were wonderful years. But, my husband is no less of a hero than someone who was killed in combat,” she said.
Also, she said, the In Memory Honor Roll provides a more accurate tally of those who died because of the Vietnam War.
“In Memory told me that if every one in the military who died because of Agent Orange exposure in the Vietnam War was listed, it would take three more ‘walls.’ It’s appalling,” she said.
Thai daughter
The Plasketts lived in New Orleans for seven years after they married before moving back to the area, where both of their families lived.
Timothy, who grew up in Youngstown, was a 1967 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School. His father, Karl, is deceased, but his mother, Helen Plaskett, lives in Austintown. Tim has five brothers: Michael of Pittsburgh; Richard, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel living in Montgomery Ala.; Patrick of St. Petersburg, Fla,; John of Canfield, owner of Liberty Patterns in Boardman; and Gerald in Ocean Springs, Miss. His sister, Teresa, is deceased. Tim worked for many years at the Youngstown office of Guardian Protection.
Leesa is a 1974 graduate of Youngstown Wilson High School but attended Poland High School until her junior year. She is the daughter of Robert Vaughn of Fairfield Township and Gayle Rugh and her stepfather, Don Rugh of Columbiana. She works as an executive assistant for T.H. Logan and Associates in Salem.
The Plasketts have three sons: Jesse, 25, of Cleveland, a graduate of Ohio University; and Cody, 21, and Eli, 19, both students at OU.
Timothy also has a daughter from Thailand, Talah Tarr, whom he wrote about in the May 1999 issue of Guideposts magazine. He had been reassigned to Udorn, Thailand, and met and fell in love with a young Thai woman named Dtim. Talah was born in October 1971. Tim and Dtim couldn’t get married because of Army regulations, and when he was ordered back to the States, he left his Thai family behind. He sent Dtim letters through friends still in Thailand, but then the war ended, and his subsequent letters went unanswered, Timothy wrote in Guideposts.
He told Leesa about Dtim and Talah before they were married and kept a picture of Talah on their dresser.
When Leesa was pregnant with Jesse, she asked him: “Don’t you ever wonder about Talah and want to try and find her? He said, ‘All the time, but I didn’t think I had the right to ask that of it of you.’”
“My husband was a really good man and person,” Leesa said.
In 1982, they contacted the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which helps Amerasian children, for help in locating Tim’s daughter. She was found in 1986, and on March 31, 1988, 16-year-old Talah, with the blessing of her mother, came to live with the Plasketts. Talah graduated from Crestview High School, attended Youngstown State University, and is now married, has two children, and is living in Philadelphia.
“My husband had nightmares about what he had done and witnessed in Vietnam that never went away,” Leesa said.
She said Tim was a wonderful husband and father.
“Our kids adored him. He was so funny. When he put them to bed, he’d make up stories or read to them. He read the entire ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy as bedtime stories,” she said.
Leesa said her husband brought a lot of fun into her life, too.
For instance, he made Ground Hog Day special. “He’d sent me flowers as a sign spring was coming and make me cards. We had a really close relationship. He treated me like a queen,” she said.
Tim died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but it took four years of work and persistence, with the help of a cancer research scientist from California, the American Legion, the Columbiana County Veterans Service Commission and then-Ohio Congressman and now Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, to get the Veterans Affairs Department to acknowledge that Tim’s cancer was caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
As a result of the VA’s acknowledging that Tim’s death was caused by Agent Orange, part of her son’s college expenses are being paid and they receive a monthly stipend. Leesa also receives a monthly stipend and health insurance through the VA until she remarries.
Leesa quit working when Tim was diagnosed with cancer, enabling them to spend a lot of time together during his last six months.
They went to Mass every morning at St. Jude Catholic Church in Columbiana, where Tim was very active, and went out to eat breakfast afterward, she said.
“I knew a certain incident in Vietnam really bothered him. I think he couldn’t forgive himself. He would wake me up saying, ‘Go left Frank, go left.’”
“He kept saying, ‘I feel like there is something God wants me to do.’ He read his Bible every day. I knew if he went to confession that he would die,” she said.
Tim finally did go to confession, and he was at peace. A week later, he died.
alcorn@vindy.com
Video