Mt. Lebanon solider killed in Vietnam remembered by company commander
Harry Funk / Staff Retired U.S. Army Col. Gordon Lam speaks at the Mt. Lebanon Memorial Day observance.
Harry Funk / Staff Laying the wreath at the Mt. Lebanon Veterans Memorial were members of the Marine Corps League South Hills Detachment 726: from left, Joe Spinnenweber of Bethel Park, Bob Malley of Castle Shannon and Ron Miller of Whitehall.
Harry Funk / Staff Retired U.S. Army Col. Gordon Lam speaks at the Mt. Lebanon Memorial Day observance.
Harry Funk / Staff Korean War veteran Francis Hynds of Mt. Lebanon was among those attending the observance.
Harry Funk / Staff State Rep. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, reads the names of the fallen listed on the Veterans Memorial.
Harry Funk / Staff Justin Fauss reads the names of the fallen listed on the Veterans Memorial as Taylor Fraasch rings a bell in their honor.
Harry Funk / Staff Todd DePastino of Mt. Lebanon, founding director of the Veterans Breakfast Club, introduces keynote speaker Gordon Lam.
Harry Funk / Staff Bob Malley, left, and Joe Spinnenweber of Marine Corps League South Hills Detachment 726 prepare to lay a wreath at the Mt. Lebanon Veterans Memorial.
Harry Funk / Staff Mt. Lebanon Boy Scouts from Troop 28, Girl Scouts from Troop 51343, and Cub Scouts from Pack 28 and Pack 35 participated in a flag retirement ceremony following the Memorial Day observance.
Harry Funk / Staff Josh Dougherty, senior patrol leader for Troop 28, organized the flag retirement ceremony.
Harry Funk / Staff Girl Scouts Jane Huston, left, and Josie Dougherty participate in the flag retirement ceremony.
Harry Funk / Staff Mt. Lebanon Boy Scouts from Troop 28, Girl Scouts from Troop 51343, and Cub Scouts from Pack 28 and Pack 35 participated in a flag retirement ceremony following the Memorial Day observance.
Harry Funk / Staff Kelly Fraasch, Mt. Lebanon Commission president, gives welcoming remarks at the Memorial Day ceremony.
Harry Funk / Staff The Rev. David Bonnar of St. Bernard Church says a prayer.
Harry Funk / Staff Members of the Mt. Lebanon High School Triple Trio sing the national anthem.
Harry Funk / Staff The flag is retired.
As he stood in front of the Veterans Memorial in Mt. Lebanon, retired U.S. Army Col. Gordon Lam made an educational suggestion.
“If I were a civics teacher at Mt. Lebanon High School, for all the young people here,” he said specifically to many of those in attendance at the local Memorial Day observance, “I would have them all come down here every year, pick a name off this wall and write a one-page paper about who that person was.”
Lam, who served as keynote speaker for Monday’s event, fulfilled the equivalent of such an assignment with regard to Army Spc. David Stearns Easton, a member of the Mt. Lebanon High School Class of 1961.
In November 1967, Lam arrived in Vietnam to take command of the Army’s Company A of the 4th Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division.
“When I got there, it was a hot, steamy, muggy day, thinking to myself, why in the world was I out here?” he recalled.
Lam also recalled meeting his radio operator, “this young, lanky kid, about 5 feet 11. He looked like Pigpen. You know, the one from Charlie Schulz’s ‘Peanuts.’ His hair was tousled. Very pale.
“He’s the guy who helped me learn how to take a shower using one of those canvas buckets we called the ‘Australian shower,’ Lam said. “He was the guy who took care of the .50-caliber machine gun on top of the armored personnel carrier. He’s the guy who knew all of the code words, all of the signals in the event that we had to use them and call for help. He certainly knew how to read the map.
“So I came to rely on young David Easton as my right-hand man.”
He died of a gunshot wound on May 8, 1968, 30 days before his 25th birthday.
“I could tell he was leaving us,” his commander recalled. “I’d seen it before. But he did so bravely and heroically.”
Nearly half a century later, Lam apprised his Memorial Day audience that the number of Americans who have served in uniform has dwindled to less than 1 percent of the population. As a result, awareness of the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf is dwindling, too.
“You and I tonight must be the voice of those whose names are on this memorial,” Lam said. “We have to tell their story. We have to share their life.”