On 14
November 2009, at Hillcrest Cemetery in San Saba, Texas,
there will be a memorial service for Seaman Second Class
Augustine Martine Vasquez. He died, as many of his
shipmates did, when the USS Barton (DD-599) sank in combat
off Savo Island (just off Guadalcanal Island) on the night
of 13 November, 1942.
He
was declared missing in action for one year and then
pronounced killed in action on 14 November, 1943 by the Navy
Department. His father died, family lore indicated, of a
broken heart from losing his youngest son and his mother,
until her death in 1958, never gave up on him; she fully
expected him to walk through the front door until the moment
she died.
For
reasons never explained nor questioned, his nine surviving
brothers and sisters did not place a headstone in the family
plot at Hillcrest Cemetery.
When
his name or memory came up in family conversations, tears
and looks of sadness marked the faces of his sisters and
brothers. His nephews and nieces only had those memories of
moms, dads, aunts or uncles in sad moments, his Purple
Heart, a few photos of a young, smiling and handsome man and
some yellowing obituary clippings. Nothing else of him
remained as far as we knew.
His
last surviving sisters and brother died earlier this
decade. All of the others died years before.
This
lost and forgotten uncle had always bothered me. It
belatedly occurred to me that there was no marker for him in
the family plot. (I did find a memorial plaque with his
name, rank, branch of service, service number and date of
death on a Wall of the Missing at a U.S. Military Cemetery
in Manila City, the Philippines. I do not believe that
anyone in his immediate family was ever aware of it, much
less have been in a financial position to go and see it.)
About three months ago, I contacted the funeral director of
Howell Doren Funeral Home in San Saba, Texas.
Kevin Keeney, who was a year behind me in high school, heard
my story and submitted the needed paperwork to the VA.
About a month ago, he contacted me that the military
headstone for my uncle had arrived.
So,
on November 14, 2009, sixty six years and one day after his
death, S2 Augustine M. Vasquez's nieces and nephews and all
of their children and grandchildren will gather in the
late morning at Hillcrest Cemetery to see the headstone and
to have a memorial service for him. Prayers will be said
and followed by comments from family members and friends of
the family. Our uncle will no longer be lost nor
forgotten.
The
memorial service is open to the public.
Submitted
by Oscar Barrera