Dear Editor,
About this time of the year, I think of many friends I lost in combat in Vietnam. Richard Campos is one name that I always remember. I first met Richard at St. Francis School in Watsonville, CA. St. Francis was primarily a boarding school with a few day students from the local area. Richard was also a boarding student as was I. He was a couple of years older than I was. I remember he really helped me learn to play first base on the school’s baseball team. Although he was not a strong academic performer, he was somewhat of a naturaly leader in sports. I first met Richard in the fall of 1954 when I began St. Francis as a sixth-grade student. (The lowest grade the school admitted students for was the sixth grade.) I last saw Richard at school in the 1957 to 1958 school year.
I was just starting my Air Force flight training in the fall of 1966. I had been commissioned as an officer in September of 1966. I was back home in California in December of 1966. I had been training in Laredo, Texas. Just about the time I arrived in California the newspapers from San Francisco to San Jose were carrying the story of a Sgt. Campos who had been killed recently in Vietnam. The reason his death was noteworthy was because there was no one to claim his body. One of the priests from St. Francis stepped forward to claim his body. He explained that although St. Francis was primarily a boarding school a few of the boys at the school did not have any parents or close relatives to care for them. I did not know this when I was a student there. I remember some of the papers carrying this story referred to St. Francis as an orphanage.
A few years later I had my turn engaging in combat while flying in Vietnam. I was informed that where Richard Campos was actually killed was classified. The intelligence people I talked to about him said that he was probably killed in Cambodia or Laos. Of course, these were countries we were not officially involved in. I remember having the air craft I was flying in over Laos being really shot up there.
I have always felt that anything veterans have been granted as benefits should always be considered earned benefits and not just some form of entitlement. Politicians from both parties tend to treat veteran benefits as just as another entitlement. I will do all I can to defeat those politicians that have voted against veteran benefits.
Dr. W. David Herbert
Billings
