Donald Gary Detmer
Private First Class
L CO, 3RD BN, 4TH MARINES, 3RD MARDIV, III MAF United States Marine Corps Fort Lauderdale, Florida April 14, 1946 to February 27, 1967 DONALD G DETMER is on the Wall at Panel 15E, Line 104 |
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"Not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank,
From his brother, |
Donald Detmer was the grandson of my late stepmother, Irene Blair McNaughton. I did not have the oportunity to know him or his brother Randy very well, as we traveled in different circles. I remember Don as a happy, very popular young man. He was a skilled diver and was interested in becoming involved in underwater construction in Texas on (the then new concept of) off-shore drilling platforms, to the best of my memory. I remember he had an old Austin Healy he worked on. Don was sent off to Nam while I had been lucky enough to be stationed in Germany. I was a brash and very immature individual in those days, but when I got word of Don's passing, it made more of an impact on my life than one would expect. I associate the beginning of my adult life with his death. Shortly thereafter I was also sent to Nam, but was blessed once again in that I was allowed to return. To those of us of that particular generation, those times were character forming, unavoidable, and at times unendurable. I doubt that there is an American who has lived through those years that can say he hasn't been indelibly marked by them. God bless you, Don.
Paul McNaughton |
A Note from The Virtual WallA bitterly fought battle at the end of February 1967, which took place about 5 kilometers northwest of Cam Lo, cost the lives of 28 Marines and sailors:
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