Reading Ken Rini's comments about Vinnie made me think about families today that recieve the horrible news that Mr. and Mrs. Vinton recieved 46 years ago. It is time for us to take our country back from the corrupt politions. I hope I live long enough to help in the revolution.
Torchy......Thanks for all your effort in putting this together.
Bob Vinton and I car pooled our senior year working at May Co. in University Heights. He was kind and always friendly. I saw Bob at a party at O.U. He told me he was heading to Viet Nam. The following month I was home for spring break; and my parents told me he was killed. I was shocked and quite depressed. I still have the Plain Dealer notice of his KIA. Jules Steinberg
I did not know Bob that well in High School other than seeing him at a few parties and maybe Manners. Then all of a sudden I saw him for a full week in Fort Lauderdale right before he left for Viet Nam. We actually talked about the war but he was there just to have a good time before he left. I talked to him that week more than all of Junior high or High School. It was a week of total fun with some other Clevelanders on the beach and rented rooms. About a month later he was killed in action. I was stunned. How could this be? To this day he is the only person that I can say I knew who was killed in the war in Viet Nam. He sort of represents our class for a whole period of time after high school that reflects the turmoil of those days. "Only the good die young" Not sure who said that but when I hear that verse I immediately think of Bob Vinton.
On a cheerie note..Bob was a friend of mine and I particularly remember the (swimming) pool parties he hosted a his house on those hot & humid summer days. Then there was one infamous New Year's Eve that Kenny Rini might recall . Bob's parents were out on the town that night..so a spontaneous party formed at the Vinton's house. Someone had gotten a hold of some champagne, but it was warm so we put it in the freezer to chill. However, I guees with all the other drinking going on, we forgot all about it and apparently when the Vintons opened their freezer the next day, there were glass shards everywhere. Opps! I'm sure that Bob got in a lot of trouble for that one...but he was always such a good sport and never complained.
It's a crying shame that such a good guy lost his life so young!
I didn't know Robert Vinton well but his story represents the unique time period we grew up in when so much of our lives revolved around Vietnam. The kids today don't really understand what the Vietnam War represented to our generation, how it changed so many lives and how it changed America. There were a lot of Robert Vinton's in America:
58,286 KIA or non-combat deaths (including the missing & deaths in captivity)
725-837 POW (660-721 freed/escaped, 65-116 died in captivity)
During the Vietnam War, 30% of wounded service members died of their wounds...
Thanks to Torchy and others we have this wonderful website to communicate. Maybe we should consider dedicating or honoring this reunion to Robert Vinton?
That period of time was rough on a lot of us for one reason or another. There were 2 sides to that war and it was difficult to decide which side to be on. Jim Vyhnal and I were drafted in January and February, 1968, a month apart. We didn't enlist, we were drafted and went to serve our country. Jim was in Viet Nam for slightly less than a month when he stepped on a hidden mine and suffered some severe injuries. He eventually fully recovered and is fine today. There were so many things about that period of time that none of us like to even discuss. We weren't considered heros, we were the villians. When discharged, we were advised to take our uniforms off in order to make it home safe, and that was here in the states. The soldiers of today are heros and rightly so. When I went back to school after the service, I had to hide the fact that I was ever in the military
Jim and I heard about Bob Vinton getting killed and were greatly sadden by it then and still today. It is so much different today. We are in another futile war with young people dying for a cause that we all have a hard time defining. I agree with Bob Morris that we are in need of some major changes. There are other symptoms of that war that led to sooner than expected deaths from chemicals and other issues. Charlie Walsh passed away about 4 years ago from issues he contacted while in the service.
My kids still have a hard time grasping the concept of the draft. We did away with the draft years ago, but they can't picture coming home and finding a letter in the mail that takes you away from your family for 2 years. It all deals with freedom. Personally, I have no regrets in regards to being drafted. It was a wakeup call and changed my life dramatically.
I remember My dear friend Bob like yesterday. I remember how we shared many days studying together while he poured out his heart to me about his love Jane Karch who every time they broke up I was his shoulder to cry on. Now maybe they can both meet up again and share their past while looking down at all of us who loved them the most. As has been said about him, he was a kind gentle soul who died far to young. I think about him often. With love, Maggie
Bob sat right behind me in homeroom for three years at Shaker and we talked almost every school day.He was always an extrenely nice guy, and like Donna wrote, a good sport. From "Blue Velvet" on I would treat him as if he were the singer whose name he shared, and after awhile he played along, "What do you think of my new record?" etc. And I'd known Jane Karch since fourth grade, and always thought she and Bob were a great couple.
I remmeber in 1984 visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, whiich is stark enough, but I couldn't resist looking up Bob and Tony Culotta. When I saw their names I couldn't help breaking down, which I don't do very often. What terrible losses that war wreaked on our generation. And I couldn't help thinking that if I'd gone to a ghetto school there might have been thirty names I'd recognized. But two was tough enough.
I salute all my classmates who served in that War, and I agree with Bob Morris's comments about a need for a complete overhaul in the way we look at the world. But today let's celebrate Bob Vinton. He's obviously not in any way forgotten - look at all the classmates who are writing about him!
I didn't come to
visit you this year,
though I have been
faithful since the spring
that I first learned.
No longer flesh
you have become
deep letters etched
on polished stone
as dark as old blood,
as cold as our Cleveland
in January.
This stone and late winter
have become our
meeting place,
not the boisterous,
boundlessness,
placelessness of
our sunlit youth.
No more lazy afternoons
and celebratory evenings.
Now we meet early,
before the dawn,
the way that soldiers do,
cupping their cigarettes
against the waiting eyes,
before the day fills
with all that fills the days.
Before birds begin
their morning song,
while frost still glistens,
I walk the ramp slowly
until I find your name
among the others.
Softly I press bare fingers
into those diamond hard letters,
hoping my touch will resurrect
your easy laughter;
knowing that it won't
no matter how gentle.
Though I cannot hear your voice
I mark your presence
as sun rises, or rain falls,
or wind blows off the lake.
I tell you of the year
just past, knowing that
somehow you hear me.
'Happy birthday'
I say to the stone,
and whisper of the phase of life
on which you and I
are separately embarked.
But this year
there are new obligations.
Instead mysterious granite,
I will meet you
on a Midwest hillside,
just as early,
just as convinced that,
even without a memorial, you will be there in the mist.
Me on my way to work,
you held fast in
what lies beyond,
me waiting to hear again
your voice.
You speaking
without using words.
Robert Morris
Reading Ken Rini's comments about Vinnie made me think about families today that recieve the horrible news that Mr. and Mrs. Vinton recieved 46 years ago. It is time for us to take our country back from the corrupt politions. I hope I live long enough to help in the revolution.
Torchy......Thanks for all your effort in putting this together.
Jules Steinberg
Bob Vinton and I car pooled our senior year working at May Co. in University Heights. He was kind and always friendly. I saw Bob at a party at O.U. He told me he was heading to Viet Nam. The following month I was home for spring break; and my parents told me he was killed. I was shocked and quite depressed. I still have the Plain Dealer notice of his KIA. Jules Steinberg
Edward Torchy Smith
I did not know Bob that well in High School other than seeing him at a few parties and maybe Manners. Then all of a sudden I saw him for a full week in Fort Lauderdale right before he left for Viet Nam. We actually talked about the war but he was there just to have a good time before he left. I talked to him that week more than all of Junior high or High School. It was a week of total fun with some other Clevelanders on the beach and rented rooms. About a month later he was killed in action. I was stunned. How could this be? To this day he is the only person that I can say I knew who was killed in the war in Viet Nam. He sort of represents our class for a whole period of time after high school that reflects the turmoil of those days. "Only the good die young" Not sure who said that but when I hear that verse I immediately think of Bob Vinton.
Donna Beran (Steadman)
On a cheerie note..Bob was a friend of mine and I particularly remember the (swimming) pool parties he hosted a his house on those hot & humid summer days. Then there was one infamous New Year's Eve that Kenny Rini might recall . Bob's parents were out on the town that night..so a spontaneous party formed at the Vinton's house. Someone had gotten a hold of some champagne, but it was warm so we put it in the freezer to chill. However, I guees with all the other drinking going on, we forgot all about it and apparently when the Vintons opened their freezer the next day, there were glass shards everywhere. Opps! I'm sure that Bob got in a lot of trouble for that one...but he was always such a good sport and never complained.
It's a crying shame that such a good guy lost his life so young!
Robert Mann
I didn't know Robert Vinton well but his story represents the unique time period we grew up in when so much of our lives revolved around Vietnam. The kids today don't really understand what the Vietnam War represented to our generation, how it changed so many lives and how it changed America. There were a lot of Robert Vinton's in America:
During the Vietnam War, 30% of wounded service members died of their wounds...
Thanks to Torchy and others we have this wonderful website to communicate. Maybe we should consider dedicating or honoring this reunion to Robert Vinton?
Marc Brenner
That period of time was rough on a lot of us for one reason or another. There were 2 sides to that war and it was difficult to decide which side to be on. Jim Vyhnal and I were drafted in January and February, 1968, a month apart. We didn't enlist, we were drafted and went to serve our country. Jim was in Viet Nam for slightly less than a month when he stepped on a hidden mine and suffered some severe injuries. He eventually fully recovered and is fine today. There were so many things about that period of time that none of us like to even discuss. We weren't considered heros, we were the villians. When discharged, we were advised to take our uniforms off in order to make it home safe, and that was here in the states. The soldiers of today are heros and rightly so. When I went back to school after the service, I had to hide the fact that I was ever in the military
Jim and I heard about Bob Vinton getting killed and were greatly sadden by it then and still today. It is so much different today. We are in another futile war with young people dying for a cause that we all have a hard time defining. I agree with Bob Morris that we are in need of some major changes. There are other symptoms of that war that led to sooner than expected deaths from chemicals and other issues. Charlie Walsh passed away about 4 years ago from issues he contacted while in the service.
My kids still have a hard time grasping the concept of the draft. We did away with the draft years ago, but they can't picture coming home and finding a letter in the mail that takes you away from your family for 2 years. It all deals with freedom. Personally, I have no regrets in regards to being drafted. It was a wakeup call and changed my life dramatically.
Margaret Schwebel (Cohen)
I remember My dear friend Bob like yesterday. I remember how we shared many days studying together while he poured out his heart to me about his love Jane Karch who every time they broke up I was his shoulder to cry on. Now maybe they can both meet up again and share their past while looking down at all of us who loved them the most. As has been said about him, he was a kind gentle soul who died far to young. I think about him often. With love, Maggie
Bennett Tramer
Bob sat right behind me in homeroom for three years at Shaker and we talked almost every school day.He was always an extrenely nice guy, and like Donna wrote, a good sport. From "Blue Velvet" on I would treat him as if he were the singer whose name he shared, and after awhile he played along, "What do you think of my new record?" etc. And I'd known Jane Karch since fourth grade, and always thought she and Bob were a great couple.
I remmeber in 1984 visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, whiich is stark enough, but I couldn't resist looking up Bob and Tony Culotta. When I saw their names I couldn't help breaking down, which I don't do very often. What terrible losses that war wreaked on our generation. And I couldn't help thinking that if I'd gone to a ghetto school there might have been thirty names I'd recognized. But two was tough enough.
I salute all my classmates who served in that War, and I agree with Bob Morris's comments about a need for a complete overhaul in the way we look at the world. But today let's celebrate Bob Vinton. He's obviously not in any way forgotten - look at all the classmates who are writing about him!
David Brown
Nones of March
I didn't come to
visit you this year,
though I have been
faithful since the spring
that I first learned.
No longer flesh
you have become
deep letters etched
on polished stone
as dark as old blood,
as cold as our Cleveland
in January.
This stone and late winter
have become our
meeting place,
not the boisterous,
boundlessness,
placelessness of
our sunlit youth.
No more lazy afternoons
and celebratory evenings.
Now we meet early,
before the dawn,
the way that soldiers do,
cupping their cigarettes
against the waiting eyes,
before the day fills
with all that fills the days.
Before birds begin
their morning song,
while frost still glistens,
I walk the ramp slowly
until I find your name
among the others.
Softly I press bare fingers
into those diamond hard letters,
hoping my touch will resurrect
your easy laughter;
knowing that it won't
no matter how gentle.
Though I cannot hear your voice
I mark your presence
as sun rises, or rain falls,
or wind blows off the lake.
I tell you of the year
just past, knowing that
somehow you hear me.
'Happy birthday'
I say to the stone,
and whisper of the phase of life
on which you and I
are separately embarked.
But this year
there are new obligations.
Instead mysterious granite,
I will meet you
on a Midwest hillside,
just as early,
just as convinced that,
even without a memorial, you will be there in the mist.
Me on my way to work,
you held fast in
what lies beyond,
me waiting to hear again
your voice.
You speaking
without using words.
From a friend,
Barbara Horovitz (Brown)
Wow...what a beautiful timeless elegy!