Memorial Day might not be the holiday one equates with funny stories, but I had to laugh when reading about how Lt. Billie E Sandefur earned the soldier’s medal of heroism while ashore in Hawaii in 1969. Sandefur and his wife lived in Little River. The Lt. chased down a runaway truck with eight men in the back and managed to save the men and the vehicle before it plunged over an embankment.
You have to wonder how the truck escaped and who got ten days in the brig for his, while Lt. Sandefur was getting his medal!
The next story of his heroism was not funny in any way. He was the commander of his unit and died while taking out an enemy machine gun nest with a grenade. You can read the rest in the attached story.
Memorial Day is a time to think of not just the sacrifices that were, but also what might have been. Sandefur was from Oregon but came to the Mendocino Coast, likely with his glamorous wife, shown getting his medals from the military command in a special ceremony at the Presidio.
What were they doing in Little River? What might they have done here that we would all know about today if he hadn’t given his life? He graduated from high school in Oregon in 1955 and was in the Army Reserve. That means he probably served his bit during the 50s and never expected to go to Vietnam. And I can only wonder how the commander of the unit ended up taking on a machine gun nest and throwing grenades. Something may have gone terribly wrong, as historians tell us happens in war far more than what we see in movies.
Let’s remember this man and his service.
Also shown here are ceremonies from Memorial Day 1969. It is one of a series of fascinating articles about the hospital and the harbor district I read from that year. The old articles will completely change your views of that time period. More on that some other time.
They tell us that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. The battle, sir, is not to the s trong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no choice. If we were base enough to desire escape, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! Patrick Henry, 1775
On this day, the harbor district established a vision for the future, while honoring the veterans of the Vietnam war who had left the Coast never to return. I have enclosed photos Linda and I took on Saturday of that bronze memorial. Also check out the famous Mendo names who served on the board at that time. This was the day they launched the future in the mooring basin and remembered the past.
In Fort Bragg, the fisherman’s statue, where the names of all the Fort Bragg commercial fishermen lost at sea are remembered. The Noyo Women for Fisheries left a beautiful wreath. I grew up partly in Gloucester, Mass, where this idea originated (I think Gloucester started it). The Gloucester memorial goes back to 1716 and includes 7600 names. Part of the lesson is the forward progress of civilization. Memorial Day and Veterans Day in November were established to remember and honor and also to make us realize the high price of the continued foolish warmaking.
While in the harbor, we got to see Fort Bragg’s own military installation doing exercises that might someday save my life or yours. A team of young men from the Coast Guard base was practicing a water rescue. One man fell in the water and drifted away. The other man had to get his limp comrade turned around and put into a basket gurney. Once the “unconscious” Coast Guardsman was in the basket, the other guy had to strap onto the rope that held it, presumably preparing for being pulled up by a helicopter or onto a boat using a winch. Watching this being done in the water revealed how difficult this is to do. Imagine now in big waves.
It was also difficult to steer my extra-large puppy Caesar along while watching this. When the first guy jumped in, my four-month-old pup was thrilled and thought they were having fun and wanted to get down there and jump in too. But then, when the other guy jumped in and was thrashing around, Caesar got worried and yanked the leash and screwed up my best rescue shot. He looked imploringly at me. “What the heck is going on down there?” It is really hard to know in the world of 2025 what the hell is really going on for me too.
While these young men gave me hope for the future, a lot of it. But what future? We are rapidly headed backwards and trampling on almost every American value and tradition right now, in my view.
I can’t say that anyone in the 2025 administration has dishonored fallen heroes so far, the making fun of John McCain for being captured back in 2016 was exactly that by a guy who found a rich guy way to dodge service. And appointing a Fox News host to run our military is also getting very close.
I wrote two stories on Friday before work. One was about all the cool garage sales. The other told the story of our Little River hero who died for his country during the Vietnam War. While Linda and I had a grand adventure today with yard sales, spring flowers, weird Canadian geese families and a fabulous 1963 Dodge Dart convertible, it would not be seemly to mix those topics with my next segment on Memorial Day, which tells of the death of an officer and unit commander from Little River who died in a firefight.
But there is one subject this morally and historically lost nation wants to hear; protest is just as American as the stars and stripes. I have enclosed some quotes from two founding fathers who were probably the most annoying protesters the king of England ever had to deal with, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, bar brawler and bar keep and people all ya’ll who are so angry at people who have the audacity to criticize the president. Fox News is a phony “journalistic” organization that is also the mouthpiece of the federal government, along with Breitbart, NewsMax and countless others.
I wonder if the king of England had also owned a “News” network or two if he would have crushed the Revolution. I would bet so. Lately, Beverly Hallberg and Link Lauren of Fox News have made it anti-American to criticize the president. Wowza. Patrick Henry might not just roll over in his grave, he might get out of it and come for ya’ll. He was the man who made the Bill of Rights inclusion mandatory. While the GOP worships a kind of cronyism, money and power that would have grossed out even King George, liberals don’t like to tell the fact that Henry believed in the Second Amendment in a fairly modern sense. When the king sent out men to confiscate gunpowder in the colonies (imagining that might go over better than taking their muskets), Henry formented a successful uprising, which was all part of his push to give us that liberty he treasured so.
He and Samuel Adams were some of the men for whom the word Patriot was created.
For 255 years History books have sought to santize these fierce and sometimes rough true patriots. Modern times are full of completely wrong Wikipedia articles and Google searches which offer the most popular versions, making mush out of sharp edged patriots.
Adams was a brawler and lover of Boston’s fine “microbrews” of the time. Since there were no dreadful Coors or Miller type macrobrews, everything was a microbrew. Adams was the beloved son of a prominent banker who was also a famous maltster, so he and dad sold ingredients for beer and he, less genteel than his pops, had opinions about what made a great brew as much as he did on making a Revolution.
Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! Patrick Henry.
19th-century history writers removed the rebellious behavior from the Revolution. Then, in the 20th century, students trying to score points on their PHD thesis went crazy the other way, turning saints into villains. They were neither in truth. They created a picture of Adams as a callous fellow who simply planned the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party and didnt get his hands dirty. Sam and Patrick were truly willing to take death for themselves if deprived of liberty. The Boston Tea Party came because King George tried to force his wealthy friends at the East India Tea Company down the throats of the colonies. Adams despised globalism and rule by wealth and inappropriate, unelected links to the government. Yes, the British East Indies tea company was the first globalist company in every way, including the evil that emanates from such inappropriate power and wealth. While as modern people we can likely relate to Adams love of beer, the whole tea thing is a head scratcher today. But it was the most important product in the world at the time.
Adams believed competition to be a key part of liberty and had many Boston comrades who could not compete with this monopoly, both in the legitimate tea business and tea smuggling. Smugglers made great beer buddies with Sam Adams but not the first billionaires in history (East Indies Tea) forcing themselves down our throats.
Can we ever move forward with 80 million Americans who give worshipful, never questioning anything, support to a constantly vengeful and disrespectful king, more intent on taking your rights than King George ever was? I truly never thought I would live to see any such thing. Not only is criticizing the government now a “sin” among the GOP, it’s much worse than that. When some random celebrity points out the president is hateful, vengeful and lacks any empathy, that celebrity gets canceled and gets death threats. Give me LIberty or Give me death is far too ostentatious for me. The death of my country’s most sacred values is the death of me and the honor and service of my family. Like MLK, i believe good cannot be achieved through any form of violence. Clearly, there is nothing that I can say that will be believed by my friends and neighbors over the blatherings of Trump, but I must try. I must have the courage to injure my own opportunities and lose the respect of friends at a time like this. It’s not like any time in American history. I don’t pretend to speak for anyone but myself, especially these fallen heroes. But I can try to borrow a bit of their courage and love for our country for my own bemused mission.
As I wrote this, KOZT played Blowing In the Wind by Bob Dylan, so I realized i MUST be right. LOL.
But I do ask
“How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry? Yes and how many deaths will it take till he knows, that too many people have died. (Memorial Day!) The answer my friends is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.”
Frank Hartzell is a freelancer reporter and an occasional correspondent for The Mendocino Voice. He has published more than 10,000 news articles since his first job in Houston in 1986. He is the recipient of numerous awards for many years as a reporter, editor and publisher mostly and has worked at newspapers including the Appeal-Democrat, Sacramento Bee, Newark Ohio Advocate and as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register.
