GARDINER — About 150 people joined a small group of Seabees to commemorate Veterans Day on an isolated, bucolic hill in a special place.
The Gardiner Cemetery is the final resting place of Marvin G. Shields, a Port Townsend resident killed in battle in Vietnam in 1965 at the age of 25 and the only Seabee to ever receive the Medal of Honor, the highest military accolade.
Seabees — members of the Navy’s mobile construction battalion — from Whidbey Island, Everett, Bangor and Bremerton gathered with active-duty service people in the cleared area with a view of Discovery Bay where Shields’ headstone had the most prominent display.
The 20-minute ceremony included a roll call in which a Seabee in the crowd returned the call: “Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Shields is here but unable to respond.”
Shields’ widow, Joan Bennett of Gardiner, and his brother, Don Shields of Quilcene, represented the family.
Don Shields, a retired mechanic, remembered his brother as “a cool dude.”
“He always had his hands out ready to help,” he said.
“If he were alive today, he would still be working hard to provide the best for his family.”
Thursday’s ceremony was the 44th annual celebration of Shields’ heroic accomplishments.
Wounded in battle
On June 10, 1965, the Seabee construction mechanic 3rd class was among those building an Army Special Forces compound in Dong Xoai, 55 miles north of Saigon, when the outpost was attacked by 1,500 Vietcong.
Wounded twice himself, Shields carried a severely wounded man to safety and then volunteered to assist in knocking out an enemy machine gun emplacement.
The machine-gun nest was destroyed. Shields was shot again, mortally wounded.
The Port Townsend American Legion Post 26 is named for Shields. A ceremony also was held there Thursday, with Police Chief Conner Daily as the guest speaker and a concert by the Port Townsend Summer Band.
‘Beyond combat’
In his invocation at the Gardiner ceremony, Chaplain Ken Johnson said he hoped that those present “one day could move us beyond combat to affirm all human life.”
Shields’ Medal of Honor citation was read, and there was a reading of the watch.
It ended with a slow rendition of taps played by two buglers, one with the main melody line and another playing accent lines in response as if it were an echo.
Given the isolated location and the spellbound crowd, the music was the only sound at the time and set a somber yet exhilarating mood.
After Dan Van Natta, master of ceremonies, ended the tribute on a solemn note, he returned a few minutes to suggest that anyone who was up for a bite to eat should join the Seabees for lunch at Fat Smitty’s down the road.
The renowned burger joint is owned by veteran Carl “Fat Smitty” Schmidt and was open for Veterans Day.
“I wanted to say this at the end of the ceremony but it didn’t seem right to follow taps with an announcement that we should meet over at Fat Smitty’s,” Van Natta said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
