Finding Bluetigers
Since leaving Bluetigers in 1970, I kept in touch with Michael Leopold and his wife Sue. He had been the only one that I had been in contact with until 2010. I am not good at calling, but I do call Mike every four to five years and we exchange Christmas cards each year.
In 1996, the 3rd and 17th Air Cav was going to hold a reunion in Sacramento, California and my wife and I were going to attend. I thought there might be a chance of me finding someone from 3rd Platoon. I thought, won’t it be fun to run into Junior (John Simmerson) at this event if he knew it was being held, since he lived in the Bay Area of Northern California. My search begun with me finding all of my Army papers that either I kept, or my Mother kept for me. I had Orders with soldier's full name and social security numbers on it. I decided that I would try and locate Junior a few weeks before the reunion. I found a web-site that searched social security death indexes for California. On the site, I put Junior’s Social Security number in. I discovered that he had died in 1977. Since he was only 17 years old when he was in Vietnam with us, he died at the age of 25. He lived life to fullest and was full of energy. I will miss him.
In January 2010, with the help of my computer, I set out to find as many of my 3rd Platoon buddies as I could. Finally, on February 25th, 2010, I found Edward (Mac) “Bry” McClellan in Oklahoma. We exchanged e-mails and I follow him on Facebook. After I sent Bry the first e-mail, through the internet I found a phone number for Keith Kudla’s daughter in New Jersey. I gave her a phone call and explained who I was and that I was looking for her Dad because we were in Vietnam together and I was his RTO man. She said that she would pass the information on to him and it would be up to him to contact me. That evening Kudla called and we talked for over 40 minutes. We exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers. My biggest question was, were we in that much Agent Orange? He told me that almost every time we went into the jungle, we were in it. Kudla then went on to tell me that he has Leukemia and thinks he may have gotten if from Vietnam.
On March 13th, 2010, I found a telephone number for Thomas Clouse. I called the number and was talking with Thomas. He went on to tell me that he and his wife owned a farm in Ohio and they had 3 children. He sounded like he was doing well. On June 23, 2014, I found out that Thomas passed away at home in Ohio.
On March 14th, 2010, after searching on the internet, I learned that Bradley Weigle had died on December 20th, 2007 in Georgia of cancer. This was later verified by Bradley's nephew in an e-mail in August 2010.
On March 16th, 2010, I found and called Leroy Gavigan in Wisconsin. We talked for about an hour. He expressed to me that he still remembers the day when Smitty and Hayes were killed and he was having a hard time with it. He said he has a lot of pictures that we took and could not bring himself to look at them because he would get too emotional. He went on the say that he was loosing his eye sight to Macular Degeneration Decease. He said he only had about 10 percent of his vision left.
On March 21st, 2010, I was able to find a telephone number for James “Tony” Belletto in Kansas. I called him and we talked for about a half hour. He is married and his hobby is going around with his Car Club and showing off his Dodge Super Bee car. He asked me if I had contacted Earl Fant yet, that he had been in contact with him years ago in Texas. I said no, but he would be the next one I searched for. That day, I started my search for Sanford Earl Fant. I was lucky enough to find a telephone number for Fant in Texas and gave it a call. I reached Earl Fant’s wife. She told me that Earl had committed suicide in October of last year (2009). She said that Earl had been depressed and was on medication from the VA. The medication was not helping Earl and he took his own life.
On March 22nd, 2010, I found a telephone number for Michael “Rug” Daniel in North Carolina. I gave him a telephone call and we talked for about a half hour. He was married and was enjoying retirement and his grandchildren. We exchanged e-mail addresses as he had pictures and wanted to send me some. He asked if I had found Fred “Doc” Burres yet, because they were good friends while in Vietnam. Both Mike and Fred took an R & R while in Vietnam. I had already been home for a few months. They decided to go to Hawaii and went AWOL and came to Sacramento, California, where Fred was from. On their way to South Lake Tahoe, they stopped in Jackson, where I worked at Billy Wolf's Chevron Gas Station, and I saw them in their car and pumped their gas. We talked for a few minutes and they took a picture of me at the cash register. For many years I had been searching for Fred since he once lived in Sacramento but I had no luck then. On October 29th, 2018, Michael “Rug” Daniel passed away from a brain tumor that I believe was caused by Agent Orange.
(Working at Billy Wolf's Chevron, Daniel took my picture when
Burres and he were on their way to Lake Tahoe while on R&R)
April 18th, 2010, I searched and found Donald “Cecil” Wicker in North Carolina. I gave him a call and we talked for about an hour. He said that he was 70% disabled from the VA for PTSD and that he didn’t go by Donald anymore, but Cecil. He wanted Leroy Gavigan’s telephone number and I gave it to him since they were close friends in Vietnam.
On April 20th, 2010, I searched for Ronald “Froggy” Hill. We nicknamed him Froggy because of his deep gravely voice. He lived somewhere in the Bay Area of Northern California. I was lucky to find his brother in Napa, California and gave him a call. He went on to tell be that his brother, Ron “Froggy”, died April 19th, 1992, of Pneumonia. He had worked at Mare Island as a machinist for 16 years. He said that Ron often talked about Vietnam and had said that one day he was going to take a drive to Jackson to see me, but never got around to it.
On August 18th, 2010, I search for Harry Miller in Tennessee. I was lucky enough to find Harry and gave him a call. I reached his wife and she said that Harry was at work. Harry is an assistant manager for a grocery store. She gave me that telephone number and I gave it a call. I told Harry that Leroy gave me his name and was wondering about him. I gave him Leroy’s number and told him to give him a call.
On August 30th, 2010, I searched for Sergeant Joseph Alvarado. I found him in California. I spoke with him on the telephone. He said that he has Agent Orange and that he had less than 3 years to live according to the VA hospital. He retired early from the Post Office as a letter carrier. He was injured the same day I was. He was dusted off in Vietnam and spent 2 months in the Long Binh Hospital, 2 months in Japan, 2 months in Hawaii and 2 months at Letterman Hospital before being released to home. He said the shrapnel punctured his larynx and he had to learn how to talk all over again. Sgt Joe passed away November 30th, 2012. He never made the 3 years that they said he had.
On September 13th, 2010, I was searching for Fred “Doc” Burres. Throughout the years, I had searched for him, but had no luck. I quickly discovered that I was miss-spelling his name. I was spelling in Burris and that was not right. I didn’t have any Orders with his name on it. I soon found some people in the Sacramento area with his last name. I soon found his nephew and he told me that Fred might be in southern California and that Fred and his father were estranged and had not talked in many years. I soon found a Fred Burres through Facebook and I finally was in contact with Fred. He was our Medic and was a good person. He lives in Palm Springs with his husband.
In September 2010, I started a search for Eldon Preuss in Kansas. I found him on September 6th. We talked on the telephone for about a half hour. He asked about McClellan, Burres and others. He was very happy that I had found him.
After contacting Eldon, I then found and called Keith Hibbard in Minnesota. Fred Burres was the one who told me where to look for Hibbard. We talked for about a half hour and was interested in getting the other guy’s addresses. It sounded like he was doing well.
On September 19th, 2010, I found Mike Michaels in Wisconsin. I gave him a call but had to leave a message. It wasn’t long before Mike had called me back and we talked for a while. He was quite impressed that I had found so many of the Platoon members.
On September 27th, 2010, after searching for Tom Ostrander in Oregon, I found out that he moved to Florida. I was lucky enough to find Tom in Florida and I gave him a call. It was nice to talk with him and it seemed that he was doing well and was wondering if we could get all the guys together for a reunion. He asked about Roy Nelson. Nelson was a cook when I first met him in Long Bien, but wanted to be in the Infantry. They assigned him to 3rd Platoon and assigned him to carry the M-60 machine gun. I started the search for Nelson and soon discovered that he had passed away June 25th, 2002. I did not fine a lot of information on Roy Lee Nelson.
I had been searching for Jesus “Cuban” Aquino for some time. On October 10th, 2010, I found records that said that Cuban was killed in an automobile accident on July 4th, 2004, in North Carolina on his way to Florida. He was a very nice and funny guy. He had a thick Cuban accent and you couldn’t help but like the guy.
On November 4th, 2010, I found Robert Elstrodt in Pennsylvania. I called him and we had a good talk. We exchanged e-mail addresses and have kept in touch that way. He appears to be doing well.
On December 20th, 2010, I found Robert Rouch in Southern California. . I was able to track down his telephone number and gave Robert a telephone call. “Hello, is this Mrs. Rouch?” The lady on the other end of the telephone said, “Yes this is, can I help you?” I went on to tell her my name and that Robert and I were in Vietnam together and I would like to talk to him if I could. She said that she would get him, that he was in the back of the house. After a few minutes, Robert was on the telephone. “Robert, how the hell are you, this is Bill DeMusey,” I said. Robert went on to tell me that he was doing pretty good. He said that he was in a vehicle accident several years back and that he broke his back and that he doesn’t get around that well any more. He said that his health wasn’t all that good. I asked him when he moved from Indiana because that is where he said he was from in Vietnam. He said that he got a job with the railroad in Indiana and just followed the jobs and he ended up in California where he met his wife and they had two boys. Both boys were grown and living on their own. I asked Robert if he remembered the day he and I were assigned to third platoon and had to burn shit, and he said yes, that he would never forget that day.
On October 15th, 2011, after searching for a while, I found Joseph Elswick in Virginia. I contacted Joseph R. Elswick, he was one of the new men that went out on patrol on January 2, 1970. Joseph told me that during the ambush, he was the closest man around Barney McCoy Smith when he was shot by enemy fire. He told me of how he held Barney in his arms in his final minutes here on earth. When Barney passed, he seemed to be at peace with everything. Each year, Joseph calls me and relives the 1st day he went out.
On November 11, 2014, I found the last man I had on my list, Sergeant Richard “Dick” Kirby, in Indiana. Actually, his wife contacted me through my vietnam69to70 site. I found out that Dick had a brother that was also in Vietnam and died of cancer of what they think was Agent Orange. Dick was just about to retire and his wife said that he was interested in getting together for some sort of reunion.
On March 30, 2016, after years of searching, I found Sergeant Gaston Paul Jones. While searching obituaries, I found that he had passed away in Maryland from a lengthy illness on September 27, 2015. He was a good man and a great soldier!
On June 2, 2020, I received an email from my website that said, "I'm Mike, son of Rickey Cain, he asked me to contact you." Rickey was a member of 3rd Platoon and went on the same missions as we did. He lives in California and we plan on meeting face to face in 2021.
On 5/8/2011, In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, my wife Karen and I, drove from California and had a mini reunion with Eldon Preuss and Bry McClellan and their wives. It was great to have met with them after being separated 40 years earlier. It was just like 40 years had never passed.
We talked about Vietnam and shared pictures. We all stay in touch, even to this day. While we were together, I asked Eldon how his knee was since he was hurt in Vietnam on the jeep. He said that he went to the VA shortly after he was discharged from the Army in 1971, and they told him that he made too much money for VA to take care of his knee. I told him that the VA had made many changes since 1971 and that he should put in a claim to the VA for his knee injury and if he needed any help that I would help him. I am happy to report that Eldon did file a claim and that it was accepted and he has received treatment from the VA for his knee.
In 2022, Eldon found out he has Prostate Cancer and that it had spread in his body. The cancer was from Agent Orange.
I would hope that some day the 3rd Platoon of Delta Troop, 3/17th Air Cav, could get together for a reunion. I have learned that many of my guys are still suffering to this day from what we had experienced in Vietnam. When I go somewhere, and someone says, "Welcome Home" or "Thank You for your service", I never know how to respond. The first thing I do is flash back to how I was treated when I landed back in the United States. I will never forget the spit that came in my direction. I will never forget the insults that were being yelled at me. I respond by saying, "Thank You!", but my heart isn't in it. Those who never experienced that feeling will never know how ashamed I felt for doing what I thought was right.
