Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 13, 1994 TAG: 9405130125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Mike Gray counts himself as one of the walking wounded, one of those who returned from the Vietnam War whole but not intact.
The Wildwood, N.J., man said he came home with post-traumatic stress disorder but that he was luckier than Puller, who returned missing his legs and portions of both hands and battled pain, depression and alcoholism.
"He was like me, only worse in many ways. Like a lot of us," Gray said as he stood before the black granite memorial, a light rain glinting off the chiseled names behind him. "And his name should absolutely be up here on this wall."
Puller's name will not be added because he did not die as a direct result of wounds he received in Vietnam, said Jan Scruggs, the veteran who began the push for a memorial and serves as its president.
Puller, whose 1991 autobiography "Fortunate Son" won the Pulitzer Prize, will be honored during Memorial Day ceremonies at the wall, Scruggs said.
Puller will be buried Monday at Arlington Memorial Cemetery with full military honors.
Joseph Steele, a veteran from Ventnor, N.J., said he and other veterans will petition the Pentagon to add Puller's name or otherwise honor him permanently at the memorial.
"He died as a direct result of the Vietnam War. It just caught up with him late," Steele said.
Puller was the son of the most decorated Marine in history, Gen. Lewis "Chesty" Puller.
The younger Puller was a second lieutenant and combat platoon leader when he stepped on an enemy land mine in 1968.
Many people visiting the memorial said they knew little about Puller but the facts of his life and death came as no surprise.
"There are so many more victims than those you see up on this wall," said Kathy Lawrence of Miami Beach, Fla. "You see them all around here."
A man selling memorial T-shirts and souvenirs near the wall snapped, "No one cares about us vets until one of us kills ourselves." The man refused to give his name.
Puller was depressed and suffering a relapse into alcoholism when he shot himself at his home in suburban Fairfax County, Va., on Wednesday, friends said.
"It's hard to speculate what might make a person do that," said John Binder, visiting the memorial for the first time from Skokie, Ill. "Whatever was in his life was painful and that's about all you can be sure of."
Upon his return from Vietnam, Puller was briefly bitter at what he considered shabby treatment by the government and an American public fed up with war and uncomfortable at the sight of Puller's legless body.
But Puller was an early supporter of the memorial and believed it should be a salve for the raw wounds of the war.
Last Memorial Day, Puller placed his wheelchair next to President Clinton as the president prepared to deliver an address at the memorial.
A group of veterans and Clinton opponents loudly jeered the president for avoiding military service, and Puller motioned them to be quiet.
"It was an honor to be by his side," Clinton said Thursday.
"Puller was a true American hero. His death reminds us all of the grief that still haunts so many of America's veterans today, of the wounds that never heal," the president said.
Puller said in his book that he visited the memorial twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.
"I would don my dusty bush hat with its fading ribbons and Marine Corps emblem, square my shoulders and go off with a red rose to place at the apex of the memorial," he wrote.
"Then, turning my back to those forever youthful ghosts memorialized in stone, I would go in search of the living among the holiday crowds with whom I might share some connection to the past."
by CNB