Roy Dee Merritt holds up the colors of the United States Marine Corps. The veteran plans to attend a traveling exhibit of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the days leading up to Bullard’s Red, White, and Blue Festival in November. CATHY KRAFVE Roy Dee Merritt said he’s looking forward to visiting a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with his grandchildren and great-grandson when it’s on display in Bullard in the days leading up to the Red, White, and Blue Festival.

The retired U.S. Marine will look for the names of soldiers he knew who were killed in action.

He was 18 when he enlisted in the Corps. Tired of school, Merritt saw an opportunity to do something else. His parents, however, weren’t so enthused.

“But at 18, you’re not very smart and not afraid of anything,” Merritt said. “Nobody wants their kids to go off to war, but somebody has to.”

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., casts a reflection of the American flag. COURTESY PHOTO He soon arrived in San Diego and boarded a bus that carried new recruits to boot camp.

“Once that bus door closed, I knew I had messed up,” he said, laughing.

Stationed at Camp Pendleton with the Marine Corp 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, the camp was bustling.

Training had been cut from eight to 10 weeks to only six to fill the need for manpower in Vietnam.

Merritt said the California sun could be brutal, especially on fair-kinned, clean-shaven recruits.

“One recruit lost his (hat). His head got sunburned and swelled up. He had to wear a scarf as punishment for three or four days.”

Soon, they were assigned their specialty training, which for Merritt included flamethrowers and mortar launchers.

“Life expectancy wasn’t very long in war,” he said.

They went in at Don Gha, but it wasn’t at all what he expected.

“Everybody was scared to death,” Merritt said. “You imagine being dropped into a war zone like you see in the movies.”

In fact, at the war’s rear perimeter, some things seemed uncharacteristically normal, in spite of airfi eld operations and other vestiges of the ever-present danger.

“There were fork lifts and T-shirts and ball caps.

As Merritt points to the locations he served on a postcard in a scrapbook, the picture of an unpredictable and capricious war emerges — January in Quang Tri. March at Camp Carroll. September in Can Thien. October in Cam Lo. November in Dong Ha.

“Wherever the enemy was expected, we went. But you never knew where they would show up. Most of the time, you hoped they didn’t.”

He remembers being assigned to Listening Post, or LP. Dense jungle meant that pairs of soldiers sent out to guard the perimeters would find cover, on high alert, only a few yards from the next LP.

“If you shut your eyes, you took a chance on losing your life.”

The intensity of the fighting stays with Merritt even to today.

“People get shot or blown up right by you and you have to carry them to the helicopter. They’re screaming and hollering.”

On Oct. 14, 1967, the enemy, penetrating Marine Corp lines, overran Merritt’s Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. It was necessary to launch a counter attack.

“We had to go out and assault the hill to keep what we had.”

As commanded, he put down his mortar launcher, picked up his rifle, and went hand-to-hand.

For his unflinching heroism in the face of scorching enemy fire, he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal.

The citation signed by U.S. Marine Commanding General V. H. Krulak of the Fleet Marine Pacific Force credits Merritt with “forcing them to flee in panic and confusion.”

“One minute, you’re mouthing off and telling jokes, and the next you are praying that you’ll get home safely,” Merritt said. “You don’t think about the bullets, because you know you’ve got a job to do.”

In December of the same year, he was called by the Red Cross into the Chaplain’s office. Back home, his father was not expected to live.

Though his father’s subsequent death led to an honorable discharge from the military to care for his mother and family, and in spite of the tough conditions in Viet Nam, Merritt said he regrets not finishing the final stage of the four-year commitment he intended to make.

“Once you are a Marine, there’s a bond that you are always one.”

He had much to say about soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“From my standpoint, I appreciate everything that the soldiers are doing to keep us free. Every war, someone has to make sacrifi ces; that’s why we have our freedom today.”

His message to young Marines is simple: “Sempra Fi.”

Always faithful. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial replica is owned by American Veterans Traveling Tribute.

More than 58,000 names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

Visit avtt.org and thewall usa.com.