Guest commentary: Postscript on a fallen friend

On Veterans Day, the Yakima Herald-Republic published my column about a young man from Yakima who died in the Vietnam War. Gary Dale Keller was truly a friend I shall never forget.

I hoped a family member of Gary's would see the article and contact me. Sure enough, they did.

At 10 a.m. the day of the article, I received a call from Lynn Keller Locke. Lynn is Gary's sister. And she still lives in Yakima.

I had a lump in my throat the size of a golf ball. I didn't quite know what to say. I didn't have to say anything. She was so grateful and she expressed her gratitude with tears of joy and sadness at the same time.

She said, "I was woken out of bed. My aunt called and actually got me and Mom out of bed. We couldn't believe what she was telling us. ... We said, 'Who is this guy? I don't remember Gary mentioning his name, do you?'"

Lynn told me she is living with her 90-year-old mother, Anna, in the same house where she, Gary and a younger brother, Dave, were raised. She was two years older than Gary, so she's 62 now. Gary would have been 60.

I was so overwhelmed with the conversation. It was kind of surreal. There were even a couple of times when there was dead silence.

She told me the family had been struggling after her parents divorced. Gary found them all a job in a warehouse and apparently got some of his friends jobs there, too. These kids were working there and his sister worked there. His mother worked there, too. The workers thought all of them were Anna's kids because they all called her "Mom."

I said, "Lynn, Gary was not a stereotypical Marine. Some thought we'd get out there and kick butt, that we were bad asses. Gary wasn't like that at all. I just always wondered, why did Gary join the Marines? He seemed like someone who would have joined the Air Force."

She told me that when Gary was a teenager, he had gotten into a little bit of trouble. He and some friends were stealing some things from homes, and they got caught. The judge told Gary he had two choices -- join the military or go to jail. He chose the Marines.

She then handed the telephone to her mother. I now had two golf balls in my throat. There was more gratitude and more tears. She was mostly apologizing for crying. I said, "You know, that's perfectly OK. If it makes you feel any better, I'm crying, too."

"Bless your heart," she told me. "You've been a godsend. We're just so thrilled that you remembered my son."

The following day, I received a call from Ida Mullinax of Graham, Wash. Ida is Gary's aunt, and she was the first to read the article on Veterans Day. One of Ida's stories about Gary was how he used to love riding motorcycles. He liked to go fast and he rarely wore a helmet.

She remembered one time when Gary rode over Chinook Pass to their house near Burien. He came rolling into the driveway on his bike with his face covered in bugs. That, I would love to have seen.

Gary has several cousins in that area and one of them, Don Mullinax, also served in Vietnam. He had done construction work near the DMZ as a member of the Naval Construction Battalion (Sea Bees). He had already spent two tours in Vietnam and was based in Japan, when Gary died in July 1968. Anna requested that Don escort Gary's body home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Herald-Republic for allowing me to tell Gary's story. I finally got to give the family my condolences, which was one of the reasons I wanted it published in this newspaper, so I could try to make contact with the Kellers. Finding out that his mom was still alive was icing on the cake.

One reason I wrote it is because this was Gary's hometown and I wanted the people of Yakima to know that a local hero will not be forgotten.

Gary was never awarded any medals of valor, but he was a hero just the same. Gary was proficient as a machine gunner and it was that proficiency that allowed many of his fellow Marines to come home.

Another reason was my own personal guilt, something I have been dealing with for over 40 years. I have felt guilty because I made it home and more than 58,000 men did not. This column was sort of a healing process for me.

Gary Keller's story will be an introductory chapter in a book project I am working on titled "Heroes From the Wall." The book will include chapter-size biographies on some of the men who died in Vietnam.

Thanks again to the Herald-Republic for honoring one of their own.

* John Foster is a retired U.S. Postal Service employee living in Palm Springs, Calif. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966-1979, including eight years in active duty with service in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Japan.

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