The Point Vicente Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution commemorated the end of the Vietnam War this month by inviting Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King to speak about his experience. Judge King arrived at the Peninsula Library Community Room with his wife and readied his presentation while the room began to fill up, requiring the addition of more seats. We had a full house!

He began his story with hilarious details of his misspent youth. He was raised by a single mom in St. Louis, Missouri and royally floundered in High School. He pointed out a photo of his final report card and figured that the administrator must have had to use a slide rule to calculate his one-point-something grade point average. He was not a great student. In fact, he had gotten a rather good job using large machines to move earth, earning $4.40 per hour, which was a fortune to a teen in 1965. This cashflow led directly to hanging out with his buddies, drinking beer and driving around town tossing beer cans out of his car – which landed him in front of a Judge. This rather wise judge offered him the opportunity to join the military (beating the draft to the punch) rather than be charged with numerous legal offenses. And he was wise enough to take that advice.

Rick joined the Navy Seabees because of his construction experience. He explained what a Seabee was… “C” meaning Construction and “B” meaning Battalion, where the genius idea of turning the logo into an insect carrying tools and a machine gun is anyone’s guess. The CB men were sent to war zones to build roads and buildings. The Navy formed the Seabees in 1942 where they built airbases all over the Pacific and European theaters for WWII. 16 million served in WWII and 325,000 of them were Seabees. A half million served in Vietnam, 25,000 of them Seabees. If you want to see what being a Seabee is about, he recommended watching the movie “The Fighting Seabees” starring John Wayne. His laughingly relayed that John Wayne’s character was named Wedge Donovan, which couldn’t be a more hilarious name for a construction guy. He concluded his lesson by informing his audience that there is now a Seabee Museum at Port Hueneme (pronounced wy-nee-mee he embarrassingly discovered back in 1965 when he was assigned there after boot camp).

During his time in Vietnam, Rick’s focus was widening the main coastal road through the country, National Highway 1, which runs the length of the country. He was assigned to a power shovel and worked in the quarry, blasting rock to be smashed down to road-size gravel for use in building air strips, bridges and primarily to widen that highway. While it seemed his job was fairly routine, he was still trained to defend his camp in case any action came their way, which it eventually did. A long story involving an attack on a close-by bridge, a tank coming in to defend it and a full-on gun battle gave the rapt audience pause. Tears began to fall as Rick described his fellow Seabees, a crew of six who were assigned to the mortar pit, fearlessly fell in defense of their camp.

Sixteen Marines also died in the battle at the bridge and two more Marines died in a medevac helicopter crash while trying to extract the wounded. It was the worst day of his tour, as he not only had to use his gun for the first time but was also right there to pull the bodies out of the mortar pit when the fighting was done.

Rick was shipped home in 1968, arriving at LAX on the same day as Robert Kennedy, who was campaigning for President on an anti-war platform. He and his fellow soldiers walked through that crowded airport in their fatigues, through throngs of people there to see their presidential candidate. He didn’t describe what happened in those moments, but the look of utter disappointment was clearly displayed on his handsome face. He then told us how he went on to attend Santa Monica City College and then UCLA, only ever hanging out with vets, and never wore his uniform in public again.

It was 21 years until Rick King was thanked for his service.

In 2012 Rick was diagnosed with cancer. He jokingly said that it was no surprise considering he was exposed to agent orange, was given all the unfiltered cigarettes a soldier would want and had zero form of sunscreen during his youth. The experience left him with the desire to seek out the families of the six lost Seabees from his unit. What he discovered was that all of the family members never really knew what happened to their beloved soldier. They were so grateful to hear firsthand how their soldier was a hero.

After meeting with all these families and doing extensive research on the battle, Rick figured it out: the advent of the helicopter on the battlefields in Vietnam changed the way people back home saw the fight. In past wars, battles took days, collection of the deceased soldiers weeks, battle stories relayed to family. Since this new technology came into play, the average battle lasted only minutes and because the helicopters were able to quickly evacuate those killed in action, family members never heard about how their soldier died, that they were heroes.

In 2018, fifty years after his extraction from the country, Rick returned to Vietnam with five of the family members of his lost fellow Seabees. They visited the camp and held a ceremony at the approximate location where the men were killed. Closure for them all. And then of course Rick has the whole room in a chuckle as he explained that they took the same highway that Rick helped build all those years ago, and darned if that 2½ hour drive was now just a mere 45 minutes!

What a story. What a man. What a hero.

SUBSCRIBE FREE TO PALOS VERDES PULSE

Diana R. Starr

Diana is a SoCal native who grew up barefooted on Venice Beach. After college she moved to Phoenix, AZ and then to Seattle, WA where she began her family. After having two busy little boys, she and her family jumped at the opportunity to return home to enjoy the sun and sand. Diana has written several books, likes to volunteer, loves to travel and sample the beautiful things in life.