Veteran’s book honors of those who gave their ‘last full measure of devotion’

Terry Mayon, a Vietnam veteran, began research on Tri-City area soldiers nearly a decade ago. He narrowed that research a little more than a year ago when he joined forces with Marc Distefano to bring the Fallen Warriors Memorial in Morgan City to life.
That memorial was dedicated today, and a book Mayon published — “Fallen Warriors of the Tri-City Area Morgan City, Berwick & Patterson, Louisiana” — encompassing biographies of those included on the memorial’s Wall of Honor will help finance future maintenance on the memorial.
“It was a way to bring these people back to life for a little while … these weren’t just names on this granite wall. These were real fathers, sons, brothers and we wanted to bring them alive,” Mayon said.
Mayon, himself, served in the Air Force for eight years, including one year in Pleiku, Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. He was given an honorable discharge in 1973 with the rank of tech sergeant.
His research began as a way to assist Morgan City High School with their Veterans Day program and to provide concise research for the Morgan City Archives, he said.
That research now includes 67 names of soldiers hailing from the Tri-City area who gave their “last full measure of devotion” since World War I. Mayon included anyone who was killed in action, died of wounds suffered in combat or were non-combat casualties of the wars.
Of those included, 47 were killed in action or died of combat wounds, Mayon said, with the remaining 20 dying of disease, training accidents or, in one case, a tiger attack in the jungles of Vietnam.
Raymond Page Johnson, of Patterson, died at Kontum Province, South Vietnam, on Aug. 9, 1969. His death is listed in military records as a non-hostile ground casualty and the cause of death as undetermined.
According to an article written by Warren Gallion about his experiences in that country in 1969 and quoted by Mayon, Johnson, while on a long range reconnaissance patrol, was killed and dragged from the encampment during the night.
“His body was discovered the next day and all indications were he was killed by a tiger,” Mayon states in his book.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
John Eugene Simpson Jr., of Berwick, was killed in action April 24, 1951, while engaged with the enemy in Korea at Horseshoe Ridge. After high school, Simpson joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served for 19 months during World War II.
After his discharge, he attended Texas State University for Negros. When war broke out in Korea, Pfc. Simpson re-enlisted in the Marines and was shipped to Korea Feb. 4, 1951.
It was Simpon’s stated desire to remain in the Marine Corps and to retire a United States Marine, Mayon states in the book.
The Marines lost 210 men April 23-24, 1951. Simpson received, among numerous other awards, the Purple Heart.
There are tales of so many more:
—Four men died during World War I from the Spanish Flu pandemic that began in January 1918. Of the soldiers who died in Europe, half of them — estimated at 43,000 — fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy, according to Mayon’s book.
—Henry Jacob Tabor, a native of Bayou Chene, was killed in action by sniper fire during the World War II Battle of the Bulge in Belgium Jan. 9, 1945. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
—Michael Joseph Bordelon, of Bayou Vista, died May 10, 2005, in San Antonio, Texas, from burns and other injuries sustained April 23, 2005, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle in Mosul, Iraq. He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.
Mayon’s book is available for $10 at the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce office, 727 Myrtle St., Morgan City; phone, 985-384-3830.