Several men dabbed their eyes as Dave Comrath, a seventh-grader at Aromas School, somberly concluded a poem written 30 years ago by a then-high school senior in Homestead, Fla.
” … and I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea, of unmarked graves in Arlington. No, freedom is not free.”
Tony Souza, who served as a Seabee in Alaska and Japan during the Vietnam War, reflected how so many people lost their lives for the country.
“All those unmarked graves, the graves at the bottom of the sea. Freedom is not free – that’s true. There’s a price.”
His comments came during a reception that followed a Veterans Day tribute in the school cafeteria, its stage decorated with red, white and blue balloons. To one side stood a framed American flag that flew over the Capitol in Washington last year on Pearl Harbor Day, and will now be mounted in the front office of the school.
Groups of students paid homage to the veterans in the audience with such standards as “This Land is Your Land” and “Grand Ol’ Flag.” The assembly concluded with bugler and Korean War veteran Tony Rojas playing taps as members of Freedom Post 1716 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard circled the auditorium.
During the reception, Aromas resident Ron Mesiroff said he was drafted straight out of high school, shipping off to Vietnam first before heading to Germany to work as an engineer. Asked whether he thinks the draft should be reinstated, he paused, then said, “I think everybody ought to serve for two years,” citing the increased patriotism and tolerance that comes along with mandatory service.
“When you have a draft, you get a greater cross-section of Americans,” he said, adding those who wouldn’t otherwise enlist would join a melting pot that “forces people to be more well-rounded and accept different ways of living.”
But for some, the reality of war remains so vivid that memories still haunt them years later – especially those who got up close and personal with their dead brethren.
Aromas resident Joe Strasser, drawn by recruiters’ pep talks and glorified wartime movies, volunteered, saying that “at the time, I was for it and wanted to defend our freedom.” But his experience was far from what he expected. Asked what he did during his tour, Strasser said he spent most of his time “collecting bodies” and making sure they were properly identified.
One tour was enough, and Strasser left the military in 1974. It wasn’t until he returned to the United States and heard the mounting calls from the public to bring the soldiers home, images of death still fresh in his mind, that he began questioning the wisdom of the United States’s involvement.
“I almost never talk about this …” he murmured sadly, then abruptly turned away.
