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“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . .” — Abraham Lincoln

A time to honor ‘ . . . the last full measure of devotion’

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moke Signals invites you to join us in remembering and honoring those who have preserved our liberties by their own sacrifice.

The North Georgia Veterans organization will hold a Memorial Service at the Petit Lake Dam Veterans Memorial at 11:00 a.m. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31. (see details, page 13). On these three Smoke Signals’ pages several members of the North Georgia Veter- ans organization share their remembrances of comrades lost in battle. In trying to introduce these very personal memories to our readers, Smoke Signals

could find no better or more moving words than those of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln when he dedicated the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylva- nia on November 19, 1863.

Lincoln gave this speech during the Civil War, the most divisive period in the life of our country. Considered by historians to be one of the greatest speeches in American history, Lincoln’s 367-word Gettysburg Address took just two minutes to deliver but the words he spoke still evoke those principles of equality, sacrifice and dedication that we honor today.

Lt. George Markos

By 2nd Lt. Ben Read

119th Aviation Company, 52nd Batallion, Air Mobile Light

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n Memorial Day 2010, I am writing this tribute in remembrance of Lt. George Markos who was killed in the Viet Cong attack on Pleiku, Vietnam in early 1965.

George and I lived in the same ‘hooch’ at Camp Holloway in Pleiku the summer of 1964 during the so called ‘Cowboys and Indians’ phase of what was to become the Vietnam War. Many date that attack on Pleiku as the official start of the war. Our helicopter opera- tions out of Pleiku primarily supported about a dozen of the 12-man Special Forces “A” Teams whose job was to

“George and I lived in the same ‘hooch’ at Camp Holloway in Pleiku in summer of 1964 during the so called ‘Cowboys and Indians’ phase of what was to become the Vietnam War.”

advise and lead the local Montagnard tribes or Vietnamese troops in their fight against the Viet Cong. Sadly, they often preferred to battle each other. George accumulated all sorts of Viet Cong (VC) paraphernalia captured in operations along the Laos and Cambo- dian borders - in particular VC flags. I understand that as the war pro- gressed, such flags became a virtual cot- tage industry for rear echelon souvenir hunters. This was not the case in the times and places George flew. I left Vietnam in September 1964 but my lasting memory of George is a pic- ture of him with such a flag on page 62 of the January 1965 issue of the National Geographic Magazine in the article en- titled “Americans in Action in Vietnam”. He was the first of my friends killed there and I still treasure his memory and one of his VC flags.

T H E G E T T Y S B U R G A D D R E S S

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a

new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any na-

tion so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle- field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can

not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lt. Fred Wozniak

By Captain Gary Cherry 11th Tactical

Reconnaissance Squadron

fly the RF4C Phantom. We were carefree bachelors, and as we became acquainted, we decided to share a “bachelor pad” in England where we were headed after training.

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By a stroke of good fortune however, I met and married Katherine during my training, which needless to say took me out of the living arrangements we had been looking forward to.

But as luck would have it, about a year and a half later our squadron was unex- pectedly transferred to Udorn, Thailand where Fred, Cliff and I finally became roommates. We three shared a room, flying missions primarily over North Vietnam.

About three months after we arrived in Thailand, Fred never returned from a mission. It was later determined that he was shot down over Thanh Hoa Province. There weren’t any distress calls, and so he was placed on MIA status. I still have a POW/MIA bracelet with his name on it. In the Air Force, an officer close to the KIA/MIA was normally selected to serve as a Summary Court Officer (a person who was responsible for the personal effects). I was selected for this duty. I gathered all of Fred’s belongings together and along with the squadron commander, I composed a letter to his family. Our missions were daunting but this was much more challenging. As a young officer, I found it very hard to come up with words to convey how much Fred meant to Cliff and me. He was a camera nut (he had a huge Nikon), a girl friend back home who he planned to marry, played a mean guitar, wrote a lot of songs (some of which I wouldn’t dare let anyone hear) and was always so positive. What a blow to his family as well as to Cliff and me.

A few years after I returned to the States, I found time to go to Michigan and meet some of his family. One of the treasures I still have is a “Buck” knife that was in Fred’s belongings when I returned them. His family gave it to me in remem- brance of Fred.

Ben Read cherishes an old National Geographic magazine from January 1965 because there is a photo on page 62 of his friend George holding a Viet Cong flag in Sept. 1964. The photo,

says Ben, is a lasting memory of George who was killed in action in Vietnam.

PHOTO BY ROBERT SMITH

IETNAM • In January of 1965, I met Fred Wozniak and Cliff Wisser when we all reported to Shaw Air Force Base to learn to Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5