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Joe Gelarden
Episode 2653 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Veteran Joe Gelarden and his poignant story about a fellow Marine who died back home as a result of his service in Vietnam. The featured story comes from Wiscasset, Maine. It appeared in the Wiscasset Newspaper and was titled A lost veteran. The story was submitted by Joe Gelarden.
In his story Joe Gelarden describes how he and another draftee referred to as only Larry ended up in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Joe’s story described how Larry rose from the bad side of town and became a proud Marine. He told how Larry thought it was fortunate that he was assigned to a non-combat job at Da Nang.
That job turned out to be an assistant in the graves registration office. During the time Larry was in Vietnam, the Marines were experiencing much combat. This produced many dead bodies that Larry had to help prepare and send back home. Due to the pressures of the job, Larry succumbed to the satanic lure of Heroin to help alleviate the horror of his job. Ten years later Larry passed away as the result of a heroin overdoses.
Joe Gelarden believes Larry died as a result of his service in Vietnam and should be considered for the VVMF’s In Memory Program. That Program was initiated specifically for Vietnam Veterans who died later in life due to a cause that happened in Vietnam.
In Memory was created in 1993 by the group – Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. VVMF began managing the program and hosting the ceremony in 1999. More than 6,000 veterans have been added to the In Memory Honor Roll since the program began.
Listen to episode 2653 and discover more about Vietnam Veteran Joe Gelarden and his poignant story about a fellow Marine who died back home as a result of his service in Vietnam.
