“Sometimes only a list of grievances can quell the hate and the suffering...”
In Memory of Vernon ‘Doc’ Wike, (June 5, 1947 - January 26, 2023).
Way long before the war
The seed of pain was planted:
Trauma erupted in childhood,
Cruel Stepfather - a dark mind
Bruised with a block of wood
Endless days of punishments
Locked in an abusive house
Cradled in a nursing home
In totality, this tattooed man
From head to toe, pictographs
Doc was a walking memorial
To his fallen marines, brothers
In those dark, wet, tropical days
War in North and South Vietnam
18, he enlisted in the Navy in 1965
Trained as a medical Corpsman
Stationed on the USS Tripoli
2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines
CH-53 flights to the mainland
Life expectancy was 6 seconds
Savage encounters, bitter battle
Marines hated those VC gooks
A ‘Number-Ten’ scenario came
West from the Rockpile
The Rockpile; Elliott Combat Base
NVA coming across from the DMZ...
Landing on Hill 881N, April 1967
A brutal hill-fight at Khe Sahn,
Northwestern Quảng Trị Province
Catherine Leroy in the middle of it
A French photographer shooting
With her trusted Leica M2 camera
Fallen bodies shout “Medic... Medic!”
Marines being shot & falling
LCPL ‘Rock’ Roldan - hit in the chest
His buddy, Doc - moved up to assist
Desperately trying to revive him
Breath becoming labored
Rock dies quickly in his arms,
Hatred & anger spills over, a
M26 grenade explodes in the mind
Doc’s gaze... picks up Rock’s M16
Forgetting, he begins running
Screaming; “Kill em... kill em all...”
That moment seems to last forever
Captured in a black and white print
This photograph by Catherine Leroy.
He spent the rest of his life
Trying to save Rock...
A Respiratory therapist
Vietnam, that was a wasted war...
But aren’t all wars a waste of life?
Many lived with the actions in war
Long past its end, bitter dreams
Peace isn’t easy, a life hard-fought
A medicated peace, Fluoxetine...
His last fight was at -
Colorado State Veterans Home,
Aurora,
Fitzsimons on January 26, 2023.
Copyright & All Rights Reserved, David John Drew, 2026
