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Hundreds honor 100 killed in Vietnam
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A veteran pays respects during the Reading of the Names portion of the ceremony at the Mahoning County Vietnam War memorial downtown. Roses placed at the monument honor the fallen soldiers.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
John Hammond’s eyes fill with tears when he recalls when he, his brother, James E. Prommersberger, and a friend spent time catching crayfish near Four Mile Run Christian Church in Austintown.
“We spent the day in the woods being together,” Hammond remembered. “I always think of it when I go by that spot.”
The joyous, relaxing occasion was the day before Prommersberger left for Vietnam, where he was killed April 16, 1966, at age 21. He enlisted in the Marines shortly after having graduated from Austintown Fitch High School.
Prommersberger also was among the 100 fallen soldiers from Mahoning County who were honored during Sunday’s 23rd annual Laying of the Roses ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial on Central Square.
An estimated 300 family members, friends and others attended the somber, two-hour gathering to honor and remember those who were killed or are missing in action while having served in the Vietnam War. Sponsoring the event were Youngstown-based Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 135, American Legion Post 472 and the International Association of Workforce Professionals Youngstown chapter.
Hammond noted that his brother was part of a mine-sweeping battalion who, despite having been pinned by machine-gun fire, was able to save 13 men’s lives. As a result, Prommersberger is in the running to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, he continued.
Hammond, who came with his wife, Linda Hammond, recalled Prommersberger’s love of sports, noting that his brother was a running back for Fitch. Prommersberger was a strong family man and a close friend of Charles W. Brown Jr.’s, who also was killed in Vietnam.
“He was always there to help somebody. All you had to do was say what your problem was and he was there to help,” Karen Ruberto of Ellsworth said about Brown, who was her first husband.
Brown, who was killed in March 1967 at age 23, had many friends and loved to repair vintage vehicles, Ruberto explained. He spent time while home from the Army enjoying a 1940s model, she added.
Before marrying, Ruberto and Brown met at Fitch High School and spent their first date at Idora Park and at a drive-in movie, she continued.
During the ceremony, loved ones, fellow comrades and others placed one red rose next to the monument for each of the 100 names read aloud. Some people with tears in their eyes touched the names of their lost loved ones that’s etched on the monument.
The keynote speaker was retired 1st Sgt. Elva Pounder of Akron, a Vietnam veteran who served 20 years in the Marines.
Too many of Ohio’s estimated 67,000 women veterans, along with many men, are unaware that they are entitled to benefits for having honorably served their country, noted Pounder, who enlisted in the Marines in 1960.
Despite serving as nurses, monitoring intelligence, handling supplies and performing other duties, many women were later overlooked and treated as second-class citizens. The majority of the more than 6,000 young nurses in Vietnam who tended to injured comrades viewed them as extended family members, she explained.
In addition to the hardships of war, many returning Vietnam veterans were treated poorly at home, she said. Pounder told the story of a man in uniform who was buying civilian clothing at a discount store. While in the check-out line, someone behind the soldier referred to him as a “baby killer” and he simply walked out of the store, she said.
Nevertheless, Pounder said, more women are being recognized for their contributions and service.
“Like a lot of you, we lost friends. Not only our families suffered, but our friends and the buddies,” she added. “Why has it taken 50 years for people to say, ‘Welcome home, we appreciate your service?’”
Also part of the reflective ceremony was a Table of Remembrance, which contained items such as a tablecloth, a red rose, a lemon, an empty chair, a shaker of salt and an inverted glass — all rich in symbolism.
The cloth represented the purity of the soldiers’ intentions to serve their country; the rose stood for the blood they shed while making sacrifices; and the lemon represented their bitter fate. In addition, the salt was symbolic of the tears shed; the upside-down glass called attention to the soldiers who were unable to make a toast; and the empty chair stood for their absence.
Howard B. Carpenter and Donald M. Klemm, both of whom are prisoners of war or missing in action, also were remembered, as were those who died from combat-related illnesses.