‘It’s Almost 24/7 That I Think of Him’ Avalon’s Memorial Day Speaker Honors a Pal He Lost in Vietnam
Tom LaRosa at the end of boot camp in Parris Island, S.C., in 1965. He joined the Marines shortly before his 18th birthday.
By Dave Bontempo
This will be a different Memorial Day keynote speech in Avalon.
Not simply because Tom LaRosa approaches 80 and sounds like 40. Or because the slew of medals adorning his Marine unform – earned during tours of Iceland and Vietnam from 1965-71 – may shine as brightly as the colors of the holiday festivities.
What’s unique this time is that the speaker will do more than salute the nation’s fallen soldiers. He will honor a deep personal tie to one of them, spanning 58 years.
LaRosa’s Purple Heart, Presidential Citation Bronze Star, Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal and Vietnam Service medals will convey one service message, but his words will reveal another. They involve a name and face that has burned in his memory and filled his soul since 1967. It’s that of his buddy Richard Hix, an Arkansas native who died that year while serving with LaRosa in Vietnam.
“It’s almost 24/7 that I think of him,” LaRosa indicates. “I feel like I take him with me wherever I go.
It’s like, ‘Hey Richard, come with me, here’s what we are doing today.’ I have out in my yard in Villas a flag, a Marine Corps emblem, a toy cannon and cannonballs. They are a living monument to him.”
There is an indoor monument, too. It’s a room containing variations of the Missing Man or POW/Remembrance tables honoring those no longer with us. LaRosa’s version is a combination of candles, ribbons, a rose and a table set for one. Nobody sits in it.
Besides what’s in his yard and home, LaRosa carries a picture of Hix everywhere. There’s even one on his phone.
“Richard Hix has no family now,” LaRosa says, solemnly. “I am his family. I have told his story hundreds of times and maybe five or six times in occasions like Memorial Day in Avalon. I want people to know about his sacrifice. It’s like the [Billy Ray Cyrus] song: All gave some, some gave all. He gave all. He had his life snuffed out from him when it had barely begun. I want people to know of him.”
Hix is the latest in a long group of service people impacting LaRosa’s life. His father, Russell, came to the United States from Italy and returned there to fight for the allies.
Three of LaRosa’s uncles, including his godfather, were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the U.S. naval base there was attacked Dec. 7, 1941. One spent hours in the water rescuing soldiers on the day that drew the United States into World War II. LaRosa’s father and uncles inspired the South Philadelphia native to join the Marines, at 17. Throughout his stint, LaRosa saw enough suffering to last a lifetime.
Interestingly, the depth of LaRosa’s passion covers a relatively short life span.
Post Vietnam, a period of 55 years, he’s been a machinist, working at the United States Mint and Naval Shipyard. He retired a couple times, came with wife Sharon to Villas six years ago and discovered he could only do so much yardwork. So, he became involved with security for the Cape May Office of Emergency Management. He may retire in a couple of years, well into his 80s, or he may not.
Tom and Sharon have six children, 16 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and another on the way. He has ensured that many of them know about Hix.
LaRosa and Hix: The Bond
They were part of the 2nd battalion, 4th marines, 3rd Marine Division, Fox Company in Vietnam. On this fateful day, LaRosa was in charge of a patrol that included Hix. Both were 19.
“Richard had this unusual 20-foot blue nylon rope for reasons none of us really knew,” LaRosa recalls. “He kept saying it would come in handy for us one day.
“We were walking on patrol one day and I heard him hollering for us to hold up. Here he had found a tunnel, 20 feet or more deep, and he wanted to investigate it. He had the rope and wanted to go to see what was there. It could have been anything, even an enemy encampment.”
Hix took the rope, a pistol, two magazines, and a knife, tied the rope around his waist and lowered himself into the tunnel. Eventually, he would find an area vacated by the enemy. But it also cost Hix his life. He ran into the effects of poisonous gas and could not make his way back above ground.
LaRosa was moved not only by Hix’s commitment to his team, but with the efforts of others to get him back out. They created a makeshift rope from clothing and set it up for the smallest patrol member to slide down into the tunnel. That service member found Hix, whom they were able to raise out of the tunnel into a helicopter, although for naught.
LaRosa says he never felt responsible for Hix’s death, as both young men were doing their jobs. But the memories of Hix and the camaraderie of his team stays with LaRosa almost 60 years later.
“We were all there for one another,” he indicates. “There was racial tension in this country, but not among us in Vietnam. We did not have any black, white, green, brown or any other skin color you could think of. We ate together. We drank from the same canteen. We ate off the same spoon. We shared one can of food. We shared our smokes.
“We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with each other and had to depend on one another. That would make us a force.”
LaRosa’s platoon members considered themselves brothers from another mother. That was one theme he relished on a recent weekend reunion with some platoon comrades he hadn’t seen in 50 years. Another theme was Hix.
LaRosa’s bond with his friend underscores another part of his life. When he sees war casualties and recalls the lack of appreciation for Vietnam vets when they returned home, it brings him even closer to those he served with. The Vietnam vets have to stick together.
LaRosa smiles, recalling the road that brought him here. Yes, it’s been a long time since he was a rifleman, gunner, squad leader, corporal and platoon commander. A long time since he volunteered for Vietnam duty because he felt he owed it to others who fought and died.
Now he will grace Avalon on Memorial Day. The parade will step off at 9am May 25 at 32nd Street and Dune Drive. The Avalon Department of Recreation will organize the lineup. LaRosa will walk with Avalon Mayor John McCorristin along Dune Drive north to 21st Street, to Veterans Plaza. The parade will last approximately 40 minutes. At that time, a ceremony will be held at Veterans Plaza featuring comments from the Commander of American Legion Post 331, the mayor, and LaRosa.
This speech will resonate on a deeper, more personal level than many given on Memorial Day.
And before a large, appreciative throng, LaRosa will get to salute his friend – undoubtedly there in spirit – one more time.
