Joe O'Connor in Connecticut called to thank me, repeatedly, for helping him find a painting that used to hang in the Defense Depot Ogden officers' club.
I hadn't done a thing, but he insisted. I finally got smart and said, "You're welcome." But, really, Joe did the work. His story is cool and shows the dedication U.S. Marines have for each other. Ties forged in blood last.
Joe originally called looking for a painting of Sgt. Maj. Wayne Hayes that was hung in the club in 1967. DDO is now Business Depot Ogden, and the officers' club is a child care center.
"The painting's got to be somewhere," I told Joe.
That was the sum total of my help.
Hayes was stationed in Utah for three years and got a job tending bar in the officers' club for extra money. He volunteered for duty in Vietnam, and was killed Feb. 28, 1967.
Joe served with Hayes in Vietnam when a mortar shell killed Hayes.
"Everyone loved him. He was a wonderful guy and he lost his life," O'Connor said of Hayes. "And he didn't have to be there."
Joe met Hayes' daughter at a recent reunion and she showed him a clipping from DDO's newspaper, "The Hub," that shows Sgt. Hayes' wife with the painting as it was dedicated.
Joe decided to find the painting and give it to Hayes' daughter.
But how? DDO commissioned local artist Ken Prochet to paint Hayes' portrait. The painting was hung in what was christened the Hayes Room. It was supposed to be there "permanently," but in 1997, DDO was shut down.
Where did the painting go? I imagined a yard sale, but "once you told me that building was still standing, I just felt in my gut, knowing the Marine Corps the way they are, they wouldn't throw that thing out," O'Connor said.
He called friends who put him in touch with a warehouse in Quantico, Va., where the Marine Corps has its largest base, headquarters and national museum.
Bingo!
"I thought they were kidding," O'Connor said. "I said, 'Describe it,' and the lady on the phone is describing it to me. I guess it made a journey, and at one point, she was telling me, there's an NCO (non-commissioned officers') club at Quantico where the portrait was displayed until 1999."
After that it was put into storage.
Can he give it to Hayes' daughter? No. "They said, 'Once the Marine Corps gets it, it's ours.' "
All is not lost.
I had a lovely talk with Hayes' daughter, Deborah Mongiovi, of Escondido, Calif. She'd just as soon her dad's painting stay at the Marine Corps Museum, where it is protected and his memory honored.
She's got great memories of her dad, anyway. In 2007 she wrote to her father on the Vietnam Memorial Wall's website:
"It feels so strange to call you Daddy as I'm a grown woman now, and were you here, I'd probably call you 'Dad.' But my memories are of my Daddy. The one who would put me on his shoulders in a crowd, who always had me by his side at the dinner table, who ordered me Shirley Temples, and who always had the twinkle in his eye when he looked at me ... who was tall and handsome in his uniform as he boarded the plane and turned to wave goodbye.
"No one will ever know the depth of sorrow that overcomes me each and every Memorial Day. You'll be forever perfect in my heart."
That's a "forever" I bet lasts a very long time.
Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or email ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net.
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