VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL DAY Ceremony in Savannah GA

REMARKS made at Savannah's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Emmett Park on Sunday, May 26, 2019 by Ray Gaster

Good evening Family Members of the Fallen, Fellow Veterans, and Ladies and Gentlemen……It a great honor to be at the site where American heroes’ names are etched in marble for their sacrifice to our country during the Vietnam War. I appreciate the company of fellow veterans joining us to remember our fallen brothers in arms. It is indeed a privileged to speak on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans and Chapter 671 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. We go through this practice of honoring our war dead, because we want to remember those who have fallen. It is our responsibility to see that their sacrifices are not forgotten. Memorial Day takes on added significance to anyone who ever served in the military during a war. It is the most solemn of our National Holidays. We are here this evening to honor those who valiantly took up arms and who gave their lives in the service of our country.  

To me Memorial Day brings back the faces and the spirit of those I trained and served with. In war there is no set pattern for who dies or when one dies. We all were at risk, and we knew it. In ceremonies like this, I always have a silent prayer in which I say, “Thank you dear lord for bringing me back whole and safe. I appreciate the life you have extended to me.” My challenge, then, is one of fulfilling the commitment for coming off the battlefield whole, to lead a life of service and appreciation for what others are not able to enjoy.

This evening, we meet here at Savannah’s Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial to pay our respects to those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen that gave their lives in service to our country. Memorial Day in Savannah really constitutes the whole weekend, and finalizes on Monday as many other veteran groups have their own ceremonies. We are here to honor those that paid the ultimate price during the Vietnam War. While Memorial Day in America has become a time to relax with family and friends, we the faithful set aside time to reflect on, and honor those that gave their all. 

Memorial Day originated around 1868, after the Civil War, in communities both in the north and in the south to honor those soldiers that died in that conflict. The day was first called Declaration Day. It was a time for cleaning cemeteries and decorating graves and having ceremonies recognizing the fallen. It grew over the years expanding to other communities throughout the country. There was no uniformity for Declaration Day, as different days and months were used depending on what community or state you were located. In 1971, Congress formalized this solemn remembrance to the last Monday in May. Today, we honor over 1.3million men and women who have died serving the United States of America over the past 250 years.

As a Vietnam combat veteran, I would like speak directly about Vietnam and the men and women that served there. More specifically, I want to put a face and name to one of the 106 names engraved on our marble memorial here where we now meet.

 Sargent First Class Earl J. Overacker, Jr.

He was a native of Faith SD, born in 1939. He came from a line of Overackers that first had immigrated from Germany in the 1800’s, and later migrated out west to South Dakota as “Homesteaders”. At that time, you could get a typical 160-acre tract of land for about $18 with the requirement that it be farmed for five years. The Overackers became ranchers and raised some cattle. Earl grew up in what can best be described as in the middle of nowhere. Faith is where the railroad literally ended going west. Plans were to build it much further west, but were cancelled. Faith has a population of about 600.  For you Bikers in the audience, Faith SD is about 100 miles northeast of the “Bikers’ Mecca” ----better known as Sturgis, South Dakota. 

Earl was the eldest of seven children. He was active and enterprising in his youth. He liked to work on things and build. I was told that around age 10, he took a gasoline engine off a washing machine (they didn’t have electricity then) and put the motor on a bike and rode it 10 miles to town. He built small and large model airplanes that later became the inspiration for selecting U.S. Army Aviation as a career. He was like his father, a person that could fix or build just about anything. At age 17, his mother signed his enlistment papers so he could join the US Army.  He saw tours overseas in both Germany and Korea. In Germany he married.  He was later stationed at Hunter AAF, here in Savannah, GA. He had a souped up ’55 Chevy that he use to run at Savannah Dragway. I’m not sure of the times the car ran there, but I understand that he won many a six-pack on the streets. In February of 1969 he left Hunter AAF, Savannah GA, and his wife with two kids for Vietnam as Specialist Six (Spec. 6) or Sargent First Class (SFC), Senior Aircraft Maintenance Repairman.  This is where I met him. Charlie Company 228th Assault Support Helicopter Company, which was a CH-47 Chinook unit, in the 1st Cavalry Airmobile Division. He sometimes served as a Flight Engineer when scheduled in one of the aircrafts, but mostly he was assigned to the Maintenance Shed working on all our helicopters trying to keep them flyable. The mainstay of our missions was to support the firebases located in the very remote jungles of the III Corp area between Saigon and the Cambodia border. We were the “life lines” for those LZ’s and firebases. When we piloted his helicopter, he was always prepared and had his bird ready to fly. One of the things that impressed me the most was his professionalism and the way he conducted himself. He was professional to the core and liked by both the enlisted men and the officer aviators.  There are many challenges in a combat zone that tend to wear on the men that include the long hours, the tedious work, boredom, plus living on the edge of hostilities that can affect your mind and spirit. With SFC Overacker you never saw it, as he always presented a remarkable sense of readiness and willingness to do the job at hand. 

I will never forget the day SFC Overacker was killed. I had a day off from flying and was just sitting down in the mess hall with Lt Andy Marzack to eat lunch. You could hear it…….” INCOMING!!!” someone yelled and we were instantly on the concrete floor with the sounds of food trays, dishes and tableware crashing to the floor. It was a “one round shot”.  We got up and left not wanting to finish lunch, rather, be near a good bunker if there were any more rockets. On the way we were alerted that “someone had been hit.”  The words came fast, it was SFC Overacker. I got to the building where men were crowed around….no sign of an explosion, just quiet mumbling from the men. The 107mm rocket had hit about 30 yards away on a helicopter pad in front of a new OH-6 “Loach” peppering it with shrapnel. From the building came a stretcher bearing SFC Overacker, no sign of blood, no I.V., just two men on either end of the stretcher and a medic walking by the side. SFC Overacker looked like he was sleeping. I stood there and said a silent prayer praying for his recovery and safety. Off they were to a field hospital in the Phouc Vinh base camp and medevacked out. We found out a day later that he died. That was it.

SFC Earl J. Overacker would have been 80 this last January. This coming August 15th will make it 50 years since his death. He left behind here in Savannah his wife, Erika and two children Susan and Edward.  His wife Erika and his daughter Susan still live in Savannah. They were not able to join us here tonight. His son Edward died in an auto accident in 2014.

The Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial that sits here had it’s beginning in the mid 1980’s. One of the early advocates was our warrior brother Paul Sines. (Who also was an organizer starting our local Chapter 671 of the Vietnam Veterans’ of America.) There was a paper maché model made up about half size of the sculptured country of Vietnam, along with a real rifle, boots, and a helmet. Just as you see it now. We first carried that model on a flatbed truck in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade around 1987, and did every year until this memorial was completed in 1991. At that time, badges like these, would be handed out to Vietnam Veterans’ to wear while marching in the parade. Each badge had a name of one of the 106 from the monument on it.  This was our way of honoring our fallen brothers. Some years it included the basic information like in your program on it. I always asked for SFC Overacker. I have seven of these.  Plus, another six badges of other names when his badge was already taken. It was important to me that when I walked in the parades that I had his name because he wasn’t here to celebrate. At those times, I would quietly pray for him, or the other names that I wore, to let them know they were not forgotten.

This evening I have spoken about Vietnam War which my life is closely attached to. All that died in other Wars deserve the same amount of recognition. We should never rate the price of their deaths based on the conflict involved. All our war dead shared the same honors regardless of the conflict.

Most of us are familiar that the veterans of WWII are often referred to as the “Greatest Generation”. An honor they well deserve. I would like to add a similar distinction to those men and women who died in Vietnam as they are the “Greatest of Our Generation.” They lined up when others didn’t. They took an oath when others didn’t. They fought when others didn’t. They didn’t return home to live out their lives. Instead they gave their All making them the “Greatest of Our Generation”.  On this Memorial Day let us thank the Lord for the sacrifices they made on our behalf, and ask God to bless their souls.  This is the one time of the year that we can join together to do so. Let us tell others of their sacrifice and that these people are not to be forgotten.  Besides SFC Earl J. Overacker there are another 105 life stories on this memorial to be told and honored. Across our fair land there are over 58,000 more that we honor from the Vietnam War.

 Memorial Day was established to give us this one time a year to pause…to reflect…., and to honor those heroes, individually and in groups, who paid the ultimate price for our freedom and liberty. We can do no less than show honor and respect toward them. 

In closing, I would like to leave you with this meaningful Bible verse: 

John10:28 which says, “And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”   God bless them all and may they rest in peace and be forever remembered. 

Thank you, and God Bless the United States of America.