THE WALL OF FACES

Gary and I were roommates in officer training school. Funny stories. We chased a mouse around the room prior to Sat inspection. Trapped it under an ashtray. Couldn’t figure out what next. I don’t recognize this picture. Either the picture is wrong, there are 2 Gary Chavez, or my memory is shot. He was a class act.

One more year I come to remember that when I came into this world, you gave your life for what you believed was right and it was your duty.
My tribute to your sacrifice.
Thank you so much.
Andoni.

Rest In Peace.

One more year, I want to tell you that my search for your information has not ended, I am still looking for people who knew you, both on the battlefield and in your childhood and youth, you could not grow older like your comrades who survived the war, neither they nor I forget you. Rest in peace.
Andoni.

In the fall of 1972, I was a college junior studying in Madrid. As an Army "brat", I had my ID card, and decided to go to Torrejon Air Base to buy some American "stuff" in the PX. My seatmate on the bus turned out to be Lone Chavez, Gary's wife, who was wearing his POW bracelet. I recall little of our conversation beyond being sobered by the reality of war's cruelty, and, selfishly, what that could mean for me. At the time, I was seriously dating a West Point cadet and we planned to marry upon his graduation. I have reviewed my dismayed diary entry from that day periodically over the years. My cadet and I did not marry upon graduation as planned; instead, it was 38 years later that we married, after he had retired. Though the years, I have remembered Lone and her husband, Gary, but it was only tonight that I learned he never returned and was presumed and declared dead in the year following my encounter with Lone. I pray she has gone on to have a happy, fulfilling life.