 |
Remember...Leo Menendez Jr.
|
Leo Menendez Jr. was born on June 21, 1949, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, to Margaret (sometimes appearing as Marguerite) Bryan Menendez and Leo Menendez. Mr. Menendez worked for DuPont Chemical, according to his son's birth registry. Both he and Mrs. Menendez were also from Harrison County. In 1950, the family was joined by Leo's brother, Frederick Alfred Menendez.
Leo Menendez Jr. attended Victory High School. He appeared in the high school's yearbook, The Optic, 1965-1967.
According to information acquired from the site TogetherWeServed, Leo Menendez Jr. turned 18 in June of 1967 and joined the Marines that same year. He was in boot camp at Parris Island in July 1967, where he trained as a rifleman. His tour started on December 18, 1967. Ten days later, he was in Go Noi Island, a stretch of land bounded by rivers.
The Operation Auburn after-action report has been declassified. Operation Auburn, conducted from December 28, 1967, through January 3, 1968, was described in the report as a coordinated search-and-destroy operation among the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, in conjunction with ARVN forces and American division units, which included the 3rd Marines. It was conducted 14 miles south of Da Nang and involved a helicopter-borne assault. The Marines assumed blocking positions for a three-battalion ARVN sweep through Go Noi Island in area bounded by the Song Dien Binh and Cau Lau Rivers, Routes 1 and 537, and railroad tracks to the west. The area had been the area of operation for a previous similar operation. On December 28 and 29, 1967, the Marines had "significant contact" with the enemy and suffered several losses.
There are several accounts of Operation Auburn online, including personal statements, books, and multiple-user collective sites, such as Wikipedia. One such source is U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Defining Year 1968 (Jack Shulimson, Leonard Blasiol, Charles R. Smith, and David A Dawson [Washington, DC: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marines, 1997], accessed 25 March 2020, https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/1968/0094.) Accounts vary on the details of the operation and how and why the losses were so great for this battle. Twenty-three Marines died and 60 were injured, with most of them on the first two days during the engagements at a hamlet thought to be lightly occupied but was more heavily fortified and occupied than originally thought. According to information about Leo Menendez Jr. found on the site The Virtual Wall, on December 28, another West Virginian, Corporal James B. Cox, was one of 12 men killed.
| On December 29, Leo Menendez was among the losses of Company E. His death was reported by the Weirton Daily Times on January 4, 1968. ("2 From W. Va. Killed in Viet.") He was one of seven that died that day. His body was recovered, a victim of small arms fire who died outright. He was awarded a Purple Heart. A street is named for him in Spelter, West Virginia, where he last lived. He was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, near Clarksburg in Harrison County, next to a fellow Marine: his father, who was a Marine during World War II. Leo Menendez Sr. died a few days before his son's 18th birthday the previous June. Mrs. Menendez lost them both within a six-month period in 1967. Leo's brother, Frederick Alfred Menendez, 1950-2004, also served as a Marine in Vietnam. |  Military marker for Leo Menendez Jr. in Greenlawn Cemetery. Courtesy Cynthia Mullens |
In his hometown of Spelter, there is a street named Leo Menendez Drive.
Article prepared by Cynthia Mullens
March 2020
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
