Memorial Day

We should be giving thanks everyday, actually.

Eric

After arriving in San Mateo from his native Peru, Eric was drafted into the Marines. He was a truck driver, based out of Da Nang.

After his tour, he came back to the bay area, where he now lives with his wife with whom he has three kids, and through them three grandchildren.

Eric interacts with a number of Viet Nam vets through a group of vets who meet in Oakland to talk about dealing with PTSD. There are many groups like this throughout the nation and they have been critical in helping vets cope with very serious consequences of war.

Eric is a retired probation officer, and he is active in a catholic missionary group that takes trips to Mexico and South America- this summer they will be going to Chile.

Bambi Did Three Tours as a Marine

Yes, that Bambi!

Courtesy of OMGfacts.com:

Donnie Dunagan was only 6 when Walt Disney hired him to be the voice of Bambi. He was discovered at a Memphis talent show, and actually performed in 8 movies as a little child. He had a promising career that was cut short because his family fractured. He spent his time as a kid and teen in different boarding homes, until he joined the military as a teen.

He had a pretty good career there too. He was the youngest ever Marine Drill instructor and served three tours during the Vietnam war. He said he was fortunate to be in a leadership position for over 25 years. However, his true identity as Bambi remained hidden while he was in a military. He thinks people wouldn’t have taken him seriously if they knew he voiced the famous fawn. It wasn't years later, until he was 70, that he made it publically known.

He was attending a banquet, when a casual comment tipped media off that he had been a child star. After that, Disney got back in contact with him and he participated in the DVD featurette about the Bambi cast. He's now getting DVDs from them to give to orphanages. Fans are ecstatic that he's come back into the spotlight, and he's now proud whenever someone calls out "Major Bambi" out on the street "I love it to death," he says.

Lloyd

Lloyd served on the USS Oriskany for three years from '65-'68, the height of the war.

The Oriskany was an Essex-class carrier that posted primarily in the pacific and earned distinction in both the Korean and Viet Nam Wars. In Viet Nam, she carried out over 12,000 combat sorties. Infamously, Orisansky was the carrier from which John McCain flew off on Oct 26, 1967 when he was shot down and taken as a POW.

After Llyod got out of the Navy, he settled down in Manteca. He eventually retired from Goodyear, where he put in over 16 years, and is now waiting patiently fo his wife to retire.