SF Vietnam Memorial Rededication Veterans Day 11/11/2016

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up swords against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

“We went over that wording quite a lot,” said Michael Blecker, who as director of the veterans aid group Swords to Plowshares helped with the creation of the new memorial. “We didn’t want to say the war was honorable. But the men were. And everyone needs to remember that.

“People need to see this, read these names, pronounce these names and even touch these names, and know that this was a life and it was a deep, deep loss,” said Blecker, who was an Army sergeant in the war. “You have to make people feel this. That’s how you prevent future wars.”

The plaque is a replacement for one that was installed outside at the foot of Market Street in 2001, but was ruined by weather and vandalism. Rock-folk singer Country Joe McDonald conceived of and helped create that memorial, then raised the $5,700 needed this year for its replacement. Blecker’s Swords group and Paul Cox, chairman of the American Legion War Memorial Commission, teamed up with him to have the new one installed in the Veterans Building.

The first plaque had 163 names on it. More research has led to five names being added to the roster, including two who died in a 1969 disaster in which an Australian aircraft carrier accidentally rammed the U.S. destroyer Frank D. Evans, killing 74 sailors.

McDonald may be best known for the 1960s antiwar anthem “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag,” but as a 1959-62 Navy veteran he has been an advocate for years for those who served in the military. He got the idea for a San Francisco memorial after organizing one in the 1990s in Berkeley, where he lives — and that one was inspired by a visit to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., when he brought back a rubbing of the name of a neighbor’s son.

“My neighbor’s family was very moved, and I saw that there was a real human thing there,” McDonald said. “It hit me that for every name on the wall, there’s a whole family system of people who were left to grieve. Most civilians don’t understand the military at all, but it’s dangerous work. Even if you’re a cook or in personnel, you can die.”

Rauch had just graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1965 when he started trying to enlist to fight in Vietnam. Poor eyesight got him turned down twice by all major branches of the service, said his cousin John Growney of San Bruno — but the Marines took him on the third try.

It shows a high school photo (Sacred Heart High School) of Edward Rauch, a Marine from San Francisco who died in Vietnam, and whose name is on the Vietnam War memorial to be unveiled in SF on Veterans Day.

“He was a smart kid, he wanted to be a teacher, and he wanted the GI Bill to help pay for his education,” said Growney, 72, who also was a Marine in Vietnam. “He was a good San Francisco boy who did his best, and he would have been a great teacher, a great family man.”

Marine Sgt. Larry Snee was on patrol with Lance Cpl. Rauch when his friend died. Now 68 and retired after a career as a geologist, Snee remembers the day — Oct. 17, 1967 — acutely.

Their 19-man unit was in a thick forest north of Da Nang when the Marines were ordered to charge back up a hill they’d just finished coming down, in one of those barely explicable commands in that barely explicable war. Rauch, as combat radio operator, was a prime target because he was the one calling in coordinates for artillery and bombers to rain hell on the North Vietnamese army troops layered all around them.

“The whole mountain was just crawling with the enemy,” Snee said. “It was fogged in, raining, the weather was crap. … Ed was shot right through the handset while he was communicating back to the base trying to get us some air support.

“We all have different ways we remember this, and none of us have the same sorts of feelings,” Snee said. “Some people get frightened. Some guys were hysterical. But there were other guys … like Ed … who were deeply engaged who were not (hysterical or frightened). I went on because those guys kept us alive. It’s a fact. Ed was incredible. He was a hero.”

Snee lives in Colorado and still comes to visit his slain friend’s grave in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno. He remembers the 20-year-old kid who used to hum, “If you’re going to Sa-a-an Fran-cisco,” from the Scott McKenzie hit. Rauch was posthumously awarded the Navy Commendation Medal, and Snee is trying to get medals of valor for others who were in the firefight that day.

“It’s very important that that memorial in San Francisco is rededicated,” Snee said.

Patty Ekenberg of Sonoma plans to be there Friday when the plaque is unveiled with the name of her husband, Army Capt. O’Connor. With her will be her two daughters, who were 1 and 2 when he died, on Oct. 10, 1967.

O’Connor was an Army Airborne paratrooper, and had been posted to Germany and Oklahoma after joining the service upon college graduation in 1963.

“Denis volunteered to go to Vietnam because he thought it was the right thing to do,” said Ekenberg, 72. “His father and I were so opposed to him going over there, but he did it anyway because he thought he needed to for his country. He was very idealistic.”

O’Connor was at a base in Quang Nam Province, surrounded by Viet Cong, when the enemy laid into them with gunfire and mortars. A short time before, the base doctor had taken in an injured Vietnamese woman and baby, treated them and released them back outside the perimeter — and later, soldiers concluded she had drawn a map giving locations of key targets. O’Connor’s tent was among several that took direct hits.

A product of St. Ignatius High School, he had planned to leave the Army right after his tour in Vietnam and come back to San Francisco to help run the family concrete business.

“There was always bitterness later, in in my realization that this beautiful young life was snuffed out at the age of 27,” Ekenberg said. “He had a fabulous sense of humor, knew the words to every show tune at the time, but in his mind there was no gray. He was idealistic.”

She went on to marry again and raise two daughters. But the memory of what she lost is always with her.

“He is never forgotten in our family,” Ekenberg said. “And hopefully, people might look at that plaque and say, ‘Hey, I know that name,’ and then go home and look up their yearbook from St. Ignatius High School and say, ‘Yes, that’s him.’ And they will know the sacrifice he made.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com

Names of the 168 San Franciscans who died in the Vietnam War, from the memorial plaque in the Veterans Building:

SGT Eddie Achica 35 U.S. Army

TSGT Felizardo Cuenca Aguillon 36 U.S. Air Force

SFC Albert Kaiwi Akamu 33 U.S. Army

SSGT Daniel Albert Alegre 21 U.S. Army

PFC John Moses Ananian 23 U.S. Army

SGT Gregory Alfred Antunano 22 U.S. Army

SGT Joseph Gregory Artavia 19 U.S. Army

PFC Tony Anderson Baker 20 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Carlos Baldizon-Izquierdo 22 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Gary Alan Banglos 21 U.S. Army

SP4 Charles Wesley Barrett 20 U.S. Army

SSGT Michael M Bartholomew 24 U.S. Army

SSGT Samuel Wayne Bell 33 U.S. Marine Corps

SGT Boris Roman Benja Bentley 22 U.S. Army

LCPL Michael Linn Bianchini 19 U.S. Marine Corps

CN Martin George Blakely 22 U.S. Navy

1LT Richard Mcauliffe Bloom 24 U.S. Marine Corps

SFC Domingo R S Borja 36 U.S. Army

PFC Joseph Borruso Jr. 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Theophilus Bowles 21 U.S. Army

SGT Oscar Dan Boydston 21 U.S. Army

PFC Murry Lawrence Britton 20 U.S. Marine Corps

SP4 Franklin Vincent Brodnik 23 U.S. Army

HM3 Bruce Edward Brown 22 U.S. Navy

LCPL Leonard Charles Burris 19 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Jose Caiquep 25 U.S. Army

SGT Richard Frederick Campos 26 U.S. Army

CPL Richard Allan Carlson 20 U.S. Army

SSGT Donald Scott Carson 32 U.S. Air Force

SA Peter Chan 20 U.S. Navy

2LT Gary Richard Clark 20 U.S. Army

CAPT Robert W Clirehugh Jr. 25 U.S. Army

PFC Sam Cole Jr. 20 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Charles Cook Jr. 25 U.S. Army

SP4 Robert Reed Criswell 20 U.S. Army

SSGT Kenneth T Cruise Jr. 23 U.S. Army

SA Leon Larry Deal U.S. Navy

COL Ernest Leo De Soto 38 U.S. Air Force

PFC Gregorio Manese Deocampo 23 U.S. Marine Corps

GMG3 Raymond Lee Dock Jr. 22 U.S. Navy

PFC Johnnie Lee Douglas 22 U.S. Army

SP4 Gerald Tyler Douglass Jr. 21 U.S. Army

SP4 Ronald Lloyd Ducommun 19 U.S. Army

SGT Jimmy Lyn Dunagan 23 U.S. Army

SSGT Robert Gerald Elgin 29 U.S. Army

LT Bruce Charles Farrell 28 U.S. Navy

SSGT Alexander Fedoroff 23 U.S. Army

SP4 Ronald Dennis Ferguson 23 U.S. Army

SP4 Ronald Richard Fillmore 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Terence Patric Fitzgerald 27 U.S. Army

GMG2 Patrick Osborne Ford 26 U.S. Navy

SGT Paul Hellstrom Foster 28 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Harry Paul Gamble 23 U.S. Marine Corps

LCPL Marcial Bondoc Garcia 19 U.S. Marine Corps

SN Francis Joseph Garcia U.S. Navy

2LT David Frank Garringer 22 U.S. Marine Corps

SP5 Robert Charles Geiger 28 U.S. Army

SP4 Everett William Goias 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Jose C Gosse 23 U.S. Army

CPL Kenneth Mervin Gray 20 U.S. Army

PFC Raymond Carson Griffiths 19 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Thomas Joseph Guaraldi 20 U.S. Army

CAPT James Kenneth Hall 34 U.S. Marine Corps

LCPL Robert Joseph Henneberg 19 U.S. Marine Corps

SSGT Faleagafula Ilaoa 27 U.S. Air Force

PFC Rudolph Jennings 18 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Michael Charles Jensen 21 U.S. Army

CPL Anthony Eric Johnson 20 U.S. Army

PVT Floyd Ray Johnson 20 U.S. Army

CAPT James J L Johnson 33 U.S. Army

SSGT Ralph Martin Johnson 33 U.S. Marine Corps

SSGT John William Joys 27 U.S. Marine Corps

SGT James Toshi Kajiwara 20 U.S. Army

CAPT William Daniel Kennedy III 25 U.S. Army

PFC Ludwig Peter Kohler 39 U.S. Army

SGT Leonard William Labowski 22 U.S. Marine Corps

SP4 Leonard Allan Lanzarin 20 U.S. Army

CAPT Peter Swinnerton Larson 25 U.S. Army

PFC George Feodro Lazar 20 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Eloy Felipe Este Le Blanc 20 U.S. Army

SGT Roy Leo Lede 20 U.S. Air Force

HM3 Earl Roger Lerch 22 U.S. Navy

2LT Gary Wayne Letson 24 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Sai Gin Lew 21 U.S. Army

CPL Max Lieberman 22 U.S. Army

PFC Michael Ayr Lowery 20 U.S. Army

SFC Thomas Albert Lutge 31 U.S. Army

LTC William Affley Lynch Jr 45 U.S. Air Force

SP4 Danny Ray Mack 20 U.S. Army

SGT Robert Lee Mack 43 U.S. Army

PFC George Vincent Martinez 20 U.S. Marine Corps

SGT John Anthony Martinez 21 U.S. Army

CPL Paul Dinnes Martinez Jr. 20 U.S. Army

PVT William Robert Mc Nelly 21 U.S. Army

SGT William James Mc Taggart 27 U.S. Marine Corps

2LT Paul Charles Medlin 24 U.S. Army

LCPL Allan Mendell 21 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Rene Clarence Mischeaux 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Michael James Monahan 21 U.S. Army

CPL Jimmy Ray Moore 21 U.S. Army

CDR Richard David Morrow 40 U.S. Navy

CPL Jose Munatones Jr. 19 U.S. Army

SGT Vincent Patrick Murphy Jr. 22 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Alvin Ray Narcisse 19 U.S. Army

SP4 John Arthur Nathan 19 U.S. Army

SGT Elvain Ennis Nious 21 U.S. Army

SP4 Charles William Nurisso 19 U.S. Army

CAPT Denis O Connor 27 U.S. Army

SGT Dennis Kenneth O Connor 20 U.S. Army

CPL Reinaldo Salvador Ortiz 20 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Ceizhar Vale Pagcaliuagan 21 U.S. Army

SSGT Luther Page Jr. 38 U.S. Army

PFC Keila Paopao 20 U.S. Marine Corps

CAPT Ralph Byron Pappas 27 U.S. Marine Corps

LCPL Kenneth Parker 21 U.S. Marine Corps

SP4 John Parnella 22 U.S. Army

2LT Dorris Edward Patton 34 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Joseph Espino Perez 21 U.S. Army

SSGT Samuel Henry Pierce Jr. 37 U.S. Army

HM2 Bob Elia Pogre 21 U.S. Navy

PFC Richard Chester Pratt 21 U.S. Army

PFC Emmett Terence Pringle 18 U.S. Marine Corps

MAJ Edward Beeding Quill Jr. 33 U.S. Air Force

SGT George Michael Ramos 20 U.S. Marine Corps

LCPL Edward Harold Rauch 20 U.S. Marine Corps

MAJ Robert William Reed 34 U.S. Marine Corps

CPL Salvador Ortencio Ricardo 22 U.S. Army

PFC Jose A Rivera 20 U.S. Army

CPL Gary Gene Rodgers 20 U.S. Army

CMS Victor Romero 31 U.S. Air Force

CPL Francisco Leo Samson Jr. 21 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Robert Richard Sandstrom 22 U.S. Army

CAPT John F Santos Jr 30 U.S. Air Force

PFC Joel Luther Schubert 26 U.S. Army

SP4 Steven Rey Segura 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Donald James Smith 19 U.S. Army

BM3 Wiselee Smith 28 U.S. Navy

CWO Odin Edgar Sorensen 49 U.S. Air Force

SP4 Frank Spotwood Jr 20 U.S. Army

COL Theodore Springston Jr. 46 U.S. Air Force

SSGT Michael Forrester Stearns 23 U.S. Army

SP5 Jose Wilfredo Suarez 26 U.S. Army

SP4 Raymond Walter Sullivan 18 U.S. Army

A1C Richard Arellano Supnet 19 U.S. Air Force

LCPL Laavale Fuatau Tagata 26 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Paul Clive O Taylor 19 U.S. Army

PFC Edgar Wayne Thompson 20 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Fred Robert Thorpe 20 U.S. Army

1LT Arthur Richard Timboe 23 U.S. Army

SP4 Dennis Edward Timmons 22 U.S. Army

PFC Matau Toia Jr 19 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC Richard E Tomasini Jr. 19 U.S. Army

SFC Bertalan James Toth 31 U.S. Army

CPL Robert Lee Tyes 25 U.S. Army

COL Russel Keith Utley 44 U.S. Air Force

SGT John Juan Valero 21 U.S. Army

LCPL Arthur Vernon Vigil 21 U.S. Marine Corps

SP4 Patrick Weber 20 U.S. Army

PFC Frank Wells Jr. 18 U.S. Army

LCPL Jeffrey Raymond Wentzell 19 U.S. Marine Corps

PFC William George Wheatley 18 U.S. Marine Corps

SGT Michael Patrick Whelan 20 U.S. Army

SP4 Jeffrey Merle White 21 U.S. Army

SP5 David Charles Williams 21 U.S. Army

A1C Darryl Gordon Winters 27 U.S. Air Force

SP5 Akira Yamashita 38 U.S. Army

SGT Victor Manuel Yanez 21 U.S. Army

CPL Efrain Zuniga Jr, 21, U.S. Army

— Source: American Legion War Memorial Commission

The San Francisco Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be dedicated at its new spot in the Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Ave., at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11.