| Memories linger long after
tragedy in Vietnam
04/01/03
By Jerry Hilliard -- Associate Editor
To many, reports of lives lost
in wartime tug briefly at the heartstrings and quickly fade into
statistics. To others, the reports mean that life will never be
the same.
For Dave Rittichier of Erwin,
the memories of his big brother, Jack - who died nearly 35 years
ago in Vietnam - are everlasting.
"He would keep me out of
trouble," Dave recalled last week, "and he taught me so many
things. He always learned fast."
Dave was born in 1934, one year
after Jack. His brother was a tough act to follow as the two grew
up in Portage Lakes, just outside Barberton, Ohio.
A standout in football at
Coventry High School, Jack went on to earn all-conference honors
as a halfback at Kent State University. He was also a sprinter on
KSU's track team and participated in gymnastics.
"We had different interests
while growing up," Dave said. "He liked things like books, and I
liked the outdoors - hunting and fishing. He would go hunting and
fishing with me, but I've got to admit that I seldom would sit
down with a book with him."
The differences were evident
even in the physiques of the brothers, as Dave became involved in
body building while Jack aimed for a sleeker swimmer's-type
body.
Although both were athletes,
"he was always the star and I wasn't," Dave said. "He researched
what he was doing, always wanting perfection. I just did it. I
guess I didn't take things as seriously as he did."
The brothers played varsity
football together for one year at Coventry High, when Jack was a
senior halfback and Dave was a sophomore end. The two even teamed
up for some pass completions.
Dave remembers Jack as "a
really funny guy" who loved to play practical jokes.
He also remembers that Jack
became fascinated with airplanes after World War II. A collection
of model planes dangled from the ceiling of his room, and
pictures of planes covered the walls.
"From then on, he wanted to be
a pilot," Dave said.
After high school, the paths of
the Rittichier brothers took separate directions. While Jack
headed for college, Dave's attention turned towards work and
raising a family.
"I regret now that we didn't
see more of each other," Dave said, "but I suppose that's just
life."
While working toward a
bachelor's degree at Kent State, Jack Rittichier was a member of
the ROTC. After his graduation in 1957, he worked briefly for
Mohawk Rubber in Barberton before learning that he had qualified
for pilot training in the U.S. Air Force.
He rose to the rank of captain
during his three years as a bomber pilot in the Air Force, and
then returned to civilian life as a private pilot for a steel
company in Pennsylvania.
"He couldn't stand the cold,"
Dave said, so he and his wife, Carol, headed for Georgia, where
he worked for a buddy who had a cropdusting business. But the
warmer climate wasn't enough to keep him happy.
"Civilian life just didn't
satisfy him," Dave said. "He had seen an air-rescue movie staring
Yul Brynner and had decided that was what he wanted to
do."
So in September 1963, Jack
joined the U.S. Coast Guard with the stipulation that he would be
trained to fly helicopters. He accepted a commission as a
lieutenant junior grade in the Coast Guard Reserve and was
assigned to the Coast Guard Air Force Base at Elizabeth City,
N.C.
In March 1966, he was promoted
to lieutenant and became a member of the Regular Coast Guard.
Among places he and his wife lived was Mount Clemens, Mich.,
where Selfridge Air Force Base now has a hangar named in his
memory.
"He was a Coast Guardsman and
proud of it," Dave said of his brother, who frequently described
the fact that his branch of the service received only sparse
publicity from the work it performed. Besides flying rescue
missions, he spent part of his time in the Coast Guard doing
publis relations work to help improve its image.
When an exchange program was
created among the branches of the military, Jack volunteered to
serve a year in Vietnam with the Air Force. Shortly after he
arrived there, his heroism during rescue missions earned him two
Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Jack Rittichier's last rescue
attempt was made on June 9, 1968, when he and the three Air Force
men in his crew were shot down while trying to save the life of a
Marine near the South Vietnam-Laos border.
"It would've been the way he
wanted to go," Dave Rittichier said, "trying to help somebody. I
knew that from talking to him before he left for Vietnam. He felt
an obligation to pay his country back."
Politics had nothing to do with
his decision to volunteer. His biggest priority was to save
downed pilots.
As events unfold in the
present-day war against Iraq, Dave said he things of his brother
whenever he sees news reports about helicopters.
"I'm glad there are still
volunteers who will go out and risk their lives to make rescues,"
he said. "My sympathy is with the families of those who have lost
their lives."
Dave said he was working at a
construction site in Tallmadge, Ohio, on the day his father and a
minister arrived to break the news that his brother was missing
in Vietnam.
"I sat down with Dad, and we
prayed that Jack would be rescued or get out on his own," he
said.
A few days later, Jack's status
was changed from "missing" to "presumed dead", and Dave hoped
that he had died quickly instead of having had to endure torture
at the hands of captors.
"Dad talked personally to a
pilot who had seen what happened and was told there was no way
anyone could have survived the explosion," Dave said. "But Mom
always held out hope that Jack would be found alive."
Jack's parents, Carl and Ruby
Rittichier, died in a highway accident nearly a quarter century
before the helicopter crash site in Vietnam was discovered. A
younger brother, Henry, lives in Texas, and Jack's widow is
remarried and living in California.
Maggie Rittichier fulfilled a
dream of moving back home to Tennessee after Dave retired seven
years ago. The Erwin native met her future husband while she was
living in Canton, Ohio, and they have been married since
1976.
The couple had just about given
up hope when they received word late last year that the site in
Vietnam finally had been located. Since then, the discovery and
subsequent efforts to positively identify the victims has
generated widespread publicity.
"If this helps get just one
person to sign up in the Coast Guard, I know Jack would be
proud," his brother said.
article © the erwin register and is used with permission
|