Though he didn't die in the Viet Nam War I think his PTSD slowly killed him over the years and he finally died in 2011 and was buried with military honors near Bakersfield, California where he died.
I met Mike in 1958 when I was 10 years old and I gave him my newspaper route and trained him to deliver my route as my parents said I had to stop doing this. 2 years later I saw him again after we moved and we both were attending Woodrow Wilson Junior High School together. We went through 3 years there together as friends and then 2 years of high School At Glendale High School (where John Wayne also attended) before I went away for a year to a private school to graduate as a senior in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Then we both attended Glendale Community college. But, because of the Viet Nam war he chose to become a jet engine technician so he wouldn't be drafted into the army and sent to the front lines to die.
So, instead of being drafted into the Army to die on the front lines he joined the Air Force and was sent to Thailand to work on jet engines on B-52's and Figher jets that were used in Viet Nam. However, we didn't find each other again until our 40s because I moved, my parents moved and his mother moved all to different cities, so we couldn't really find each other after the war was over and he returned home. I found him through looking up for an email address on Yahoo.com This is how I found him then. But, I believe he still lived to around 63 years old before he died. We took a trip to Yosemite National park like we had with his family in 1963 which was an amazing experience back then. We hiked up as far as Vernal Falls once again like we had as 15 year olds in 1963.
So, I would like to honor my friend Mike who died in 2011 partly from what happened to him during the Viet Nam War regarding long term PTSD from what he went through overseas and coming back was likely pretty bad for him too.
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