Half a century later, honor finally comes
Staff writer
Florence-born Larry Creamer joined the Marine Corps in 1964.
Those who paid attention in AP History might remember what else happened that year: the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed Congress, and the U.S. officially went to war in Vietnam.
Creamer was 17 when he enlisted. He spent most of his first three years as a Marine in California. At 20, he was sent to Vietnam.
Now 77 years old, Creamer was honored April 28 with an honor flight, along with about a hundred other veterans.
Each veteran received an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., where they were able to see war memorials and tour the nation’s capital.
While Creamer had heard what honor flights were like, going himself was a special experience.
“It was humbling,” he said. “A person doesn’t realize what goes into a memorial. They think it’s just some stone. Until you’ve actually been there. … If there’s any veterans interested in it, it’s well worth finding out how to get on. It doesn’t cost a dime.”
Creamer served in Vietnam for a little more than a year at Đông Hà Combat Base, six miles from the demilitarized zone.
“I was in supply,” Creamer said. “I wasn’t over a lot of combat, but I did see a lot of missiles and rockets coming into our camp. Spent a lot of time in the bunkers.”
Apart from a few stressful nights where he was ordered to keep watch, Creamer was not on the front lines. For this, he said, he was fortunate.
“I was happy where I was at,” Creamer said. “I really feel bad for the men that were actually in combat because they have to face that when they come home.”
Anxiety colored his year in Vietnam.
“It was very stressful because you didn’t know what was going to happen at any time of day or night,” he said.
In April, 1969, Creamer’s tour of duty was up, and he returned to the U.S.
With anti-war protests fervent at the time, Creamer had a hostile homecoming.
His plane’s landing spot was changed from San Francisco to Edwards Air Force Base in the southern half of the California because of local protests.
“Coming home seemed like it was the worst part,” he said. “You got spit at and called ‘baby killer,’ stuff like that. And I’ll bet there was probably stuff like that going on there that I didn’t know about. It’s just the way we were treated when we came back home. It almost made you wish you were going to another country.”
Creamer served at a Marine base on Parris Island, South Carolina, for a few months after Vietnam.
“I cleaned their guns, shined boots and stuff,” he said. “Since I was just getting out, they didn’t make me do a whole lot.”
He left the Marines having attained the rank of sergeant.
“I had many, many friends,” he said. “Once you’re a Marine, you’re always a Marine. If I ever run into a Marine, it’s a brother.”
Despite the globetrotting he did as a young man, the honor flight was the first time Creamer had been to Washington, D.C.
His daughter, Jenny, accompanied him on the three-day trip, which included bus tours of D.C., a trip to Fort Henry, and a tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia.
“There’s a lot of history,” Creamer said. “You learn a lot more than what a guy thinks he knows. We had a wonderful guide. The flight manager was very knowledgeable.”
The group visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an understandably powerful moment.
“It’s very emotional to stand in front of it and touch it and see your reflection in it,” Creamer said.
The centerpiece of the trip was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As many as 30 funerals are conducted every weekday at the cemetery, and a few services went on in the background while Creamer and others watched the changing of the guard.
A handful of veterans rose to lay a ceremonial wreath in front of the tomb, and Creamer’s group received a formal tribute.
He remembered the few times in Đông Hà where he was ordered out on the front lines.
“I fired my rifle a time or two but without knowing I’d hit anybody,” he said.
Still, the fact he fired at all stood out to him.
“It sticks with you for the rest of your life,” he said.