2023/2024
Collection 19

A Defiant Act and a Life Saved

1966; Chu Lai, South Vietnam(1)

Have you ever heard of Stonewall Jackson, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, or even Edward McCormack? Well, you should have, because these men have something in common. Not only were they great soldiers, but they also saved lives, and one of these men saved the life of a wonderful young boy.

The man I’m talking about is Edward McCormack, my great-uncle. In 1966, when twenty years old, he volunteered to join the United States Marines to serve in Vietnam. Due to his talents, he rose quickly in rank from private to lance corporal to the rank of full corporal and platoon leader. Many soldiers have stripes or chevrons(2) to show their rank, and my uncle had numerous chevrons sewn onto his uniform, which only made the situation he was about to put himself in even worse.

On September 15, 1966, my uncle and his friend decided to slip off base to a nearby village, and thank goodness they did, because in that village was a boy with a rag wrapped around his leg and something seeping through the rag. My uncle saw him and was curious about the leg. He asked the boy if he could see it. The boy said yes, and my uncle took off the rag, revealing a deep gaping hole that was very infected and had muddied blood in it because the boy’s mother, who was the mama-san, the village leader, had applied mud to it! My uncle did the best he could to clean the wound with his canteen water, and he added battle dressing to it, but my uncle knew that if he didn’t go back with some proper supplies, the boy would lose his leg and probably his life.

That same day my uncle returned to his military base and rushed to the sick bay, where he told his friend, a medic, about the boy. My uncle’s friend gave him medication and told him how to apply it. The problem was that if he got caught going back there, he could lose everything he had worked for in the military — his rank and chevrons. But he knew what he had to do: He had to go back.

The night after he met the boy, he wrote to his parents, Grace and Edward, to tell them what he was about to do. In their reply, they tried to prevent him from returning and told him to take the boy to the doctors on base, because they were scared for my uncle’s safety. But my uncle knew that the doctors wouldn’t even attempt to save the boy — it had to be him. He went to check on the boy multiple times and developed a relationship with him. This only made him want to save the boy even more. And he was successful! He saved the life of that boy!

We don’t know much about the boy. We don’t know his name, but we do know that his mother was the village leader and that the boy told my uncle, “Me be a Marine someday.”

Grace E. Farmakis; Missouri, USA

1. Between 1955 and 1975 the nation that is now Vietnam was two separate nations: North Vietnam and South Vietnam. These two nations were at war with each other. North Vietnam was a Communist nation that was trying to extend Communism into South Vietnam, which was resisting that attempt. The United States and some of its allies fought on the side of South Vietnam in the war.

2. In the United States Marines, a chevron is a cloth badge, consisting of one or more upside-down V’s, that is worn on the upper part of a uniform sleeve to indicate military rank.

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