 OREGON and VIETNAM WAR JANUARY 1970
On 7 January 1970, then Lt. Cmdr. Michael Hoff was the pilot of an A7A in a flight of aircraft that launched from the deck of the USS Coral Sea. The flight section's mission was an armed reconnaissance over an area of eastern Laos that was considered a major artery of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail. When North Vietnam began to increase its military strength in South Vietnam, NVA and Viet Cong troops again intruded on neutral Laos for sanctuary, as the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some years before. This border road was used by the Communists to transport weapons, supplies and troops from North Vietnam into South Vietnam, and was frequently no more than a path cut through the jungle covered mountains. US forces used all assets available to them to stop this flow of men and supplies from moving south into the war zone.
by Bob Ziemer This morning PFC Daniel Irvin Mambretti, not yet 19, of Milwaukie, was buried at Willamette National Cemetery with a picture of his parents pressed in his vest pocket and a rosary, brought over from Italy over 90 years ago, gripped loosely in his left hand. Daniel is the latest of the young men from Clackamas County to be killed in Vietnam. He died 30 Jan (1970) about seven weeks after his arrival in war-torn Southeast Asia. And the grief is deep at the home of Danny's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leo "Jack" Mambretti, 9315 SE Stanley, Milwaukie, where they live with Mrs. Rose Fey, Daniel's maternal grandmother. The modest frame home, situated on the backs of flood ravaged Johnson Creek, will never be the same since an Army sergeant from Portland arrived at the door last Sunday. Jack Mambretti was watching a basketball game on television and Mrs. Mambretti was cutting out patterns in a back room. "I knew right away he came about Danny," Mambretti recalled to this reporter Saturday, "But I didn't think he was killed, wounded maybe, but not killed." Mrs. Mambretti, who is entirely deaf except for loud banging noises, threw herself to the floor and cried as only an Italian mother could after learning of the death of her only son, and the baby of the family. The shock still hasn't worn off and Mrs. Mambretti wants to move. "There's too many memories in this house." she said. Daniel Mambretti was a popular, handsome youth who made and kept friends with both boys and girls. He attended Wichita, Milwaukie grammar, rowe junior high and Milwaukie high before he left school last spring to join the service. He enlisted 3 May 1969 and acquired his high school diploma while at Fort Lewis WA, where he took basic training. The parents didn't want him to join the service but "Danny wanted to get it over with." "Danny believed what President Kennedy said about 'It's not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,'" Mrs. Mambretti said. "You can say there that he was a good boy - sure he got into mischief - what boy doesn't? - but he was a good boy." "They tell me Danny had a pretty good voice," Mrs. Mambretti explained, as she told how Danny used to sing with a local group who played for dances in the neighborhood. "He liked rock and roll," she said, and remembered how he and his friends would practice on the porch with Danny taking a turn on some borrowed drums." "Danny liked sports and although he never participated on an organized level, liked to hunt with bow and arrow, and he bowled. He watched everything on television. "He let his hair grow too long and the principal made him cut it. I wonder what he will think when he sees him at the funeral with his short hair?" the grief-stricken mother asked. "He was always in the shower taking a shower, and he used to leave the water on the floor for someone else to clean up," she said. Jack never raised his voice to him and he's taking it very hard. Mambretti, although outwardly calm acknowledged that the grief was almost too much to bear. A worker in the tube forging department at Zidell Explorations, the firm has been out on strike for some time and this, too, bothers Mambretti, Parents of three older daughters, Mrs. Rosealie Girtz, Milwaukie and Mrs. Charlene Paulsen and Mrs. Dianne Mitchell, both of Portland, the Mambrettis have nine grandchildren and they hope they can help take the place of Danny. "I used to get mad when Jack and Danny would wrestle, knocking and furniture all over," Mrs. Mambretti recalled. Danny used to call every day from California before he left for Vietnam and while his mother couldn't hear him, she'd talk to him. "I wish now I could have heard his voice." she said. The young PFC wrote regularly and the last letter he wrote to his parents was dated 26 Jan (1970). They received letters on the 28th and 29th, and a former girl friend received one he had written on the 29th, the day before he died. A neighbor lady arrived, bringing the mail, and Mrs. Mambretti hurriedly sorted it looking for another letter from Danny. Instead a letter from a general at Fort Lewis expressing his grief . . . Mrs. Mambretti is overcome momentarily. "He talked sometimes about the bullets but he didn't want to worry me," she said, "but mostly he talked about Skipper, a 12 year old-old dog Danny had since he was five. He also wanted to know about two other dogs, Peppy and Cocoa; and the cats. He loved animals, like me," she said. Stationed with the 1st Air Cavalry, Danny recently wrote "tell the kids (the nephews and nieces _ Uncle Danny is going to bring home some medals for them." Mrs. Fey related. "The first thing I looked for when I saw Danny was a scar on his face - and I knew it was him," Mrs. Mambretti said. "He's older, heavier and darker from a tan he talked about in his letters." Danny was a third generation soldier. He opened a savings account with $1 before he went overseas to save money for a car. Neither the grandmother or the parents believe the war is worth continuing, but they try to understand to justify Danny's death. "I guess God had his reasons for taking Danny, but it doesn't make it any easier," Mrs. Mambretti said. "We never raised him to be real religious but since he was overseas, he got real religious and sometimes wrote of it." Since the Sunday afternoon when the sergeant came, the reality of Danny's death has been punctuated by four telegrams from the Army. One stated in part, "He was at a night defensive position when a mine detonated. Please accept my deepest sympathy. This confirms personal notification made by a representative of the Secretary of the Army." Flowers and cards of sympathy decorate the mantle of a small artificial fireplace Danny assembled to brighten the family home. Mrs. Mambretti says everyone has been very nice, but she wishes people would donate to their favorite charities. "The flowers can't help Danny now," she said. When Danny was born 6 Mar 1951, his mother couldn't believe it was a boy. "I stood up on the delivery table and told them to go look again, 'cause I didn't have boys," she said. I'm getting his things together to make a scrapbook, I've got baby pictures, little pictures and pictures as a teenager - but they stop there," she said with tears coming from her eyes. "I guess people get tired of me talking about my Danny, but I've got to get it out," Mrs. Mambretti said, "Mothers are more sentimental, you know. "ever since we heard, I've been looking for an expression of Danny's love. Your doing a story is that expressions." she said. She crossed the small kitchen and kissed me. I hugged her and gave her's kiss, and excused myself with a lump in my throat. I know Danny's story was an expression of his love. (Enterprise Courier, Oregon City OR, Monday, 9 Feb 1970)
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