2 Mar 2004 There was a group of us who used to hang out together in Oceanside. Alice Cosgrove and I (both former WMs) lived next door to each other. Her boyfriend, Roger Midkiff, and his friends, Rick Sewell, Jimmy Cason, Ray Leach, Ed Mihalo, John Gallardi, Alan Mazzone, Bob Schittone, and Mitch Anderson, used to come over on the weekends to work on their cars, watch TV, drink beer, and listen to music. Sometimes we would pool our money and buy enough spaghetti and sauce to feed us all. We always had a lot of fun. When Mitch and the others got their orders to Vietnam it was still very early in the war, and no one really knew what was happening over there. They drove Alice and I crazy by saying, "What if we don't come back!", so we decided to use a little reverse psychology on them and said, "If you don't come back, we'll bury you under the flag pole at Las Pulgas." It worked! They said, "What do you mean 'if we don't come back?' We're coming back!" And they all did - except for Mitch. His death hit us all very hard, and we have never forgotten him. From a friend, Gwen Nolte gwennolte@aol.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall On 20 July 1965 the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines were ashore and conducting operations near Qui Nhon, South Vietnam. While E Company was in a night defensive position two men were shot and killed by another Marine who mistook them for enemy troops: LCpl Mitchell L. Anderson and Pfc Joe M. Salinas of Norwalk, California. Site 376, Section F, Custer National Cemetery Big Horn County, Montana

Contact Us

© Copyright 1997-2019 www.VirtualWall.org, Ltd ®(TM)

Last update 09/12/2019.