GARDINER — They came more than 120 strong to honor a war hero who many never met but whose gripping story of ultimate sacrifice amid the blasting gunfire of mortal combat June 10, 1965, at Dong Xoai, Vietnam, lives on.
Forty-four years after his death at the age of 25, the memory of Medal of Honor recipient Marvin G. Shields and his selfless heroism under extreme fire is still strong in the minds and hearts of many.
“This was the best turnout ever,” said Jerry Landcastle, a retired Seabees master chief who led the Veterans Day ceremony at the rain-soaked Gardiner Cemetery on Tuesday.
“It’s great that the community still supports him so much,” Landcastle said following the ceremony.
The ceremony — the 43rd time a Veterans Day ceremony has taken place since Shields, a Port Townsend High School graduate, was laid to rest there in 1965 — was among several Veterans Days gatherings on the North Olympic Peninsula.
About 1,000 people listened to Rear Admiral Robert McClinton and Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles Commanding Officer Captain Scott Pollack speak at the station on Ediz Hook.
Observances also were conducted at the American Legion Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26 in Port Townsend and by the Port Ludlow Veterans Association, while Songwriting Works members sang songs composed by elders and families honoring World War II veterans at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hall in Port Townsend Wednesday night.
In Port Townsend, special service recognition was given to Marjorie Carpenter, a WWII veteran, and to Emily Anderson, a longtime member of the American Legion Auxiliary in Port Townsend.
In Gardiner, Shields was among those in the armed services both past and present who were honored for their service.
Landcastle ended his roll call by naming Shields.
‘Unable to respond’
A Seabee in the crowd returned the call: “Construction Mechanic Third Class Shields is here, but unable to respond.”
Shields was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson for gallantry during combat.
He was a mechanic when he went to Vietnam as a Seabee, the Navy’s mobile construction battalion.
The man who “stood the watch,” as stated during the ceremony, is the one and only Seabee to ever earn the Medal of Honor.
Joan Bennett, Shields’ widow who is remarried to Richard Bennett and who lives in Gardiner, was one of several family members in attendance to honor their fallen hero.
She first met her late husband years ago, before the Vietnam war.
She sat somberly during the ceremony, but happily greeted and met those younger and older who came to honor Shields.
Chief Rose Jones, the chaplain at Navy Base Kitsap, said in a prayer during the ceremony that Shields “overcame mortal fears” and paid the ultimate sacrifice of life so that others might live.”
After Shields’ Seabee team arrived at Dong Xoai, Vietnam, his unit came under heavy fire from a Viet Cong regiment’s machine gun, heavy weapons and small arms, and he was wounded.
Shields carried on despite the injury, resupplying his fellow soldiers with ammunition and returning the enemy fire for almost three hours.
Shields was wounded a second time during the Viet Cong attack, but continued to serve.
At one point, he assisted in carrying a more critically-wounded man to safety, and then resumed firing at the enemy for four more hours.
A commander eventually asked for a volunteer to accompany him in an attempt to knock out the enemy machine gun emplacement that was assaulting their position.
Shields volunteered.
The group knocked out the gun, but Shields was shot again and mortally wounded.
“His heroic initiative and great personal valor in the heat of intense enemy fire sustain and enhance the finest tradition of Naval service,” Landcastle told the listeners who stood and sat somberly.
“He was one man who lived and died the Navy’s examples.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
