Remembering a solider who didn?t make it home
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
This Memorial Day, remember Army Sp. 4 Robert Purgiel, who died in the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago. He was a 19-year-old soldier fighting for the country in 1967. In letters to family, Bob counted down the days left in his one year tour and couldn?t wait to get back to his father and mother, Albert and Helen, his 10 brothers and sisters, an old Ford Falcon, and his girlfriend of two years, Marsha Pruden.
Bob and Marsha?s pictures appeared right next to each other in the 1966 Posen High School yearbook. Bob had planned to get her a ring when he returned home. It is the same senior picture that appeared on the front page of the Advance, October 5, 1967. The headline in the top right corner stated, ?Vietnam War claims life of Posen soldier.?
FORTY-ONE years later, the pain of his loss still weighs heavily on family members. ?To me, Memorial Day is remembering. Remembering him, remembering today, the soldiers who are out there,? said Lori Olsen, his sister, who lived at home when Army Lt. James R. Daugherty of Saginaw and Fr. Stephen Kozak of St. Casimir Catholic Church arrived at their home on 634 Highway to inform the family of the young soldier?s death. So overcome with grief, her mother couldn?t make the phone calls to her children or relatives, so Lori, who was still a high school student, was saddled with the unenviable task.
?THIS IS hard,? she said Monday afternoon, stopping a tear with her finger. ?Some Memorial Days are hard. To this day, when I hear the 21-gun salute, I get weak in the knees. It brings back that memory.?
Purgiel was fatally wounded September 27, 1967 by metal fragments in a firefight with hostile forces, while setting up a night position, the account from the October 5, article states. He was only a few days from his 20th birthday. Purgiel graduated from Posen High School in 1966. ?After graduation, that summer, he wondered, ?what do I do?? ? said Olsen. ?He didn?t want to go to college. He didn?t have a job. On a spur of a moment, he went and enlisted. He didn?t tell anybody.?
Purgiel, who loved playing baseball and hunting, was on a County League team in Posen before beginning Army training July 18, 1966. In February 1967, he reported to Oakland, California and left for Vietnam, March 9. ?WELL, HOW is everything?? He started nearly every letter to family. ?We?re over the Pacific right now, about 2 ? hours from Honolulu.? The letter was post marked, March 10 in Honolulu.
In a letter postmarked, March 26, 1967, Purgiel wrote, ?Well, I?m in the field. Didn?t run across anything yet. Thank God.? He reassured family, if anything did happen, even a cut finger, they would know about it right away.
In a letter May 11 , Purgiel, who was a radio operator, described his feelings and what was going on around him. ??About 11 guys got it. We?ve been losing men like flies, but glad there weren?t any killed. Just wounded. I should be glad I?m not one of them?they say that I didn?t see s*** yet. Boy, I hate when the time comes.?
He remarked of an encounter with 100 Viet Cong. ?They wish they never ran into us because they?re all dead now?.I tell you though, I?ve never seen anything like it. If anybody asks me if I?m going to hell, I?ll tell them, no, cause I?ve already been there.? Purgiel, in the same May letter, said he should have never ?signed up for the draft, cause I hate it, especially now, cause I hate it here.? He was injured in early July. ?Once healed, he was sent back to the lines,? said Lori.
?WHEN YOU are a radio man for the infantry, you are their in the midst of it,? said Marsha (Pruden) Hoppe, who now lives in Alpena with her hus
Marsha said Americans should remember that those fighting for the country made a difference. ?I think, being from a small town, everybody knew him, everybody felt the loss, but they were proud of him that he went.? His brother Jerry Purgiel, who was 14 at the time, remembers his brother being ?happy go lucky? and ?a great guy.? Lori remembers how much Bob loved his old Ford Falcon that he asked her to drive once a week to keep it running properly.
Memorial Day is a time to reflect on soldiers like Bob Purgiel, who didn?t come home. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and the pain family members still feels, is very real. To remember is to honor.