Mercer-Prieto VFW rededicates updated Vietnam plaque

An empty chair bearing the logo of those Prisoners of War-Missing in Action was on display as a backdrop for the Mercer-Prieto Post 2043 to honor all who died in war with an emphasis on those still considered missing decades later.

Staged Friday on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, the ceremony had a very personal touch: rededicating the plaque with the names of 11 young Santa Paula men lost in Vietnam including the one that is truly lost, Jim R. Cavender, whose remains have never been located.

The new plaque was created to correct the spelling of the last name of “Jimmy Ray” Cavender as he was affectionately known, as well as to update the marker with pertinent information including his status as MIA, perhaps the only Santa Paulan on the plaques honoring those from World I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam — 83 names in all — classified as Missing in Action.

“Jimmy Ray,” a Santa Paula native, popular SPHS athlete and all around good guy known for sticking up for the underdog, was only 20 when he went Missing in Action November 4, 1969 when the Army Bell Iroquois he was piloting went down near Duc My Pass, South Vietnam. The helicopter’s last radio transmission noted they were having trouble; the bodies of  Cavender and his crewmembers were never found.

At Friday’s ceremony Anne Beach Randall was watching her husband Paul, a Navy Vietnam veteran, take part in the Color Guard and noted their son-in-law is a veteran of Iraq action. 

“It’s great,” she noted, “they joined the VFW together and with the others,” that fought earlier wars.

Commander Jerry Olivas said the observance for the POW-MIAs reaffirmed the remembrance of all lost in war and although the fate of some is unknown, “They must remain in our hearts and minds” until their status is confirmed which will bring comfort to their families.

At every VFW meeting there is the chair with the POW-MIA logo symbolizing those whose status is unknown and, said Olivas, “To leave a place for them at our meetings...”

Every Santa Paula veteran lost in war is a member of the Mercer-Prieto VFW Post.

Olivas said replacing the plaque was to correct the spelling of Cavender’s name as well as to add his status as MIA.

But “If it hadn’t been for the Santa Paula Firefighters,” and their association which volunteered to bear the cost the new plaque would likely have taken much longer.

The SPFFA stepped up at the Memorial Day Service when Olivas fundraising would soon be launched to replace the plaque: “Right then and there the association’s President Captain Austin Macias came up and said they would take care of it…”

As does the Department of Defense, which continues to search for those whose fates are unknown. 

“They go out everyday,” on foreign soil prompted by tips and newly found evidence and have been very successful in recovering remains and clues to the ultimate fates of those who never returned home.

When ordering the new plaque Olivas said the VFW realized that all the veterans listed for Vietnam were members of the U.S. Army, so the Army logo and the back of the Vietnam Service Medal were added to the monument.

Also added, all in caps was: “They fought in a strange land which is only a small part of this planet Earth. A war fought mainly by our very young. May their sacrifice not have been in vain.”