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St. Henry student Diego Subler poses in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington where he left a tribute in honor of his great uncle.
ST. HENRY - The St. Henry eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. last month had personal significance for Diego Subler and his father, Nate Subler, who along with 61 other students and a handful of chaperons paid tribute to a family member who died in the Vietnam War.
Diego, with his father serving as trip chaperon by his side, presented a token of commemoration at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and, after plans to do so at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider fell through, laid a wreath at Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler's grave in Arlington National Cemetery.
Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler, who died in the Vietnam War, was remembered by his great nephew, Diego Subler, during St. Henry Middle School's eight grade Washington D.C. trip.
Gerald was a skillful machine gunner hailing from Versailles. The highly-decorated, 20-year-old Marine was just 19 days into his second tour with the 1st Marine Division, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, B Company when he died of multiple shrapnel wounds from hostile rocket fire in the Quang Nam Province of South Vietnam on Sept. 30, 1968.
Carrying out an assignment from English teacher Monica Wehrley ahead of the Washington trip, Diego chose to research and write a biography of and poem honoring Gerald, one of over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
As soon as Diego began talking as a child, he was told about his great uncle, Gerald, Nate said.
"My middle name is Gerald, so I've always heard stories of him," Diego said.
"Whenever we had children, I thought, you know, he (Gerald) didn't have a chance to have a spouse and children, so we just wanted to keep that name going along," Nate said of the decision he and his wife, Marilu, made to give Diego the middle name of Gerald.
From his grandfather Eugene Subler, Diego learned more about Gerald. He found that Gerald plated football and was in track and field and FFA at Ansonia High School, where he graduated in 1966.
Gerald was also a Mass server, a voracious reader and an admirer of hotrods and horses. He enjoyed working for area farmers and taking care of farm animals, especially his milk cow, according to Diego.
"He lived a pretty short life, but he touched a lot of lives," Nate pointed out. "He was the oldest boy in the family so he had some responsibilities in terms of helping take care of the family."
It was Gerald's intense yearning to get back as quickly as possible to his family, including his three brothers and three sisters, that led him to sign on for a second tour in Vietnam after completing his first 13-month stretch, beginning in 1966.
"He was trying to support the family, and so the fastest way to get out of the Marine Corp was to do another tour," Nate said. "He was allowed to come home for a month and do another 11 months and then that would be the end. Otherwise, it was four years, so he wanted to come home."
Gerald's parents Robert and Helen Subler were informed via Western Union telegram that their son had been killed in action on Sept. 30, 1968, after sustaining multiple shrapnel wounds to the head from hostile rocket fire while in a defensive position, and that his remains would be shipped back home, according to documents provided to the newspaper.
A letter from president Linden Johnson to the parents of Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler.
Other missives followed from U.S. Sen. Stephen Young, D-Ohio; Marine Maj. Gen. C.A. Youngdale; Marine Gen. Leonard F. Chapman; Army Command Gen. Creighton Abrams Jr.; Ohio Gov. James Rhodes and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, among other high ranking officers, extending their condolences and sympathies.
A story from the Versailles newspaper about the death of Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler in Vietnam.
"He faced the danger of conflict with courage in order to preserve the right of people to remain free," Johnson wrote in a letter to Gerald's parents. "This nation will be forever indebted to his bravery and selfless devotion."
Diego said Gerald's family was given his honors, including the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Marksmanship Badge, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnam Gallantry Cross, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, the South Vietnam Gallantry Cross Palm Leaf Medallion Medal, USMC Rifle Sharpshooter medal, and Vietnam Republic Military Merit Medal.
"I always thought he was a hero," Diego said. "I could not imagine my older brother dying in Vietnam."
Diego and Nate said they both learned additional details about Gerald through their research and conversations with Nate's father and Gerald's brother, Eugene.
"It's been something that's been difficult for my dad to talk about," Nate said. "He's only just in the last … five years really opened up about it. We actually had a family get-together at his house … for everybody to kind of commemorate the anniversary of his (Gerald's) death."
Wehrley's students were instructed to creatively honor the deceased veteran of their choice by creating a token of appreciation to leave at the memorial wall.
"If it's something special and it's honoring someone on the wall, they'll keep it and they'll put in in their archives," Wehrley pointed out.
Diego and Nate worked to fashion a round piece of concrete painted with the Marine Corps emblem. Diego left it in front of wall panel 42W, where Gerald's name is inscribed on line 51.
Other students made and left different types of tokens in front of the wall panels where the names of the veterans they researched were inscribed, such as professional-looking engraved wood pieces and a teddybear in a box.
When the students look at the wall not just a seemingly endless litany of faceless names but a representation of the countess number of service members who had families, varied interests and church affiliations, it takes on a much deeper meaning, Wehrley said.
"I love to give life to these names on the walls and the graves … because there's no greater way to remember them than to talk about their life," she said of the assignment.
But the honoring of Gerald didn't end at the wall.
In February, Wehrley said the touring company behind the Washington trip informed her that they couldn't secure a wreath-laying appointment at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, something St. Henry Middle School has done for 36 years.
Though initially crestfallen, the trip advisors came up with an alternative idea once they found out that Gerald was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
"When we found all this out, we're like, 'We have to do this,'" Wehrley said. "We don't care how far we have to walk, and we don't care if it's pouring rain, we're going to do this."
Wreaths were laid at the graves of Gearld and Ronald L. Latelle, another veteran researched by student Ethan May.
Diego read aloud the biography and poem he had written about Gerald at the grave.
St. Henry Middle School students on their eight grade Washington D.C. trip laid a wreath on the grave of Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler, the great uncle of student Diego Subler.
St. Henry Middle School student Diego Subler memorializes his great uncle Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler who died in Vietnam on his eight grade Washington D.C. trip.
"We sang 'God Bless America,' and did a little moment of silence. Nate talked a little bit," Wehrley said. "It was such a wonderful way to commemorate him and to honor him."
"It was unbelievable," added St. Henry Middle School Principal Kyle Kunk. "There were a lot of people who were brought to tears."
Diego said he felt supported by his classmates who gathered around the grave to pay their respects to Gerald.
"That was my favorite part of the trip," Diego said. "Most of the kids told me, 'Great job.'"
"All of us felt so connected through Diego and through Nate. We felt so connected to this hero," Wehrley said. "A lot of us were tearing up. … It was just the whole experience."
Gerald was originally buried in the Holy Family Cemetery in Frenchtown. Twenty-nine years later, Gerald's remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery, in accordance with his wishes as confided to his mother, Helen, before he left for his second tour, according to Diego's research.
Gerald's headstone that was once in Holy Family Cemetery is now located in the St. Henry Catholic Church Cemetery near his mother's grave.
"It's just amazing what you can learn about these veterans," Wehrley said about online resources. "My students learned so much about these veterans and their lives, if they have kids and how families have moved and how their families remember them."
Diego offered some suggestions when asked by the newspaper how boys and girls can honor fallen veterans.
"I think they can remember them by maybe thinking about them and praying for them and that nothing like this ever happens again, like all this war," he said.
Nate said efforts have been made to honor Gerald by naming a section of a Darke County highway after him.
Correction:
Lance Cpl. Gerald Subler yearned to get back to his family, which included three brothers and three sisters. The error was made in reporting. The above story has been corrected from two brothers.
