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park rapids enterprise | Saturday, November 11, 2023
| VETERAN’S DAY SALUTE | B1
Veterans Day Salute AREA VETS SAW COMBAT WITH
‘THE WALKING DEAD’
Dewane Morgan opens up about his Vietnam war experience By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise Dewane Morgan of Park Rapids shares a rare distinction with two other current or former members of the local Star of the North Detachment, Marine Corps League. Morgan, as well as John Warren of Pine River and the late Bob Johnson, saw combat action in the Vietnam war with the 1st Battalion 9th Marines, briefly known as the 1/9. For a relatively rural area, that may seem like a high number of veterans returning from an infantry battalion that also bears another name: the Walking Dead. “The 1st Battalion 9th Marines in Vietnam sustained the highest number of killed in action of any battalion in the history of the Marine Corps, over the period of time that that battalion was in Vietnam,” Morgan said. “Ho Chi Minh gave the battalion the name Walking Dead. He
had a Vietnamese name for it that was translated to Walking Dead.” It’s a phrase that veterans of the Vietnam-era 1/9 have embraced. It shows up on the logo of the 1st Battalion 9th Marines Network, which has been organizing reunions of the combat outfit every couple years since around the turn of the century. The network is an extension of the fact that Marine buddies who made it back from the war have remained friends for life. “Once you’re in combat with fellow Marines, or even Army, there’s a bond that’s created that’s kind of hard to describe,” said Morgan. “I still have contact with some Marines that I served with in Alpha Company.” One of Morgan’s buddies from the 1/9 is Ken Irish of Saginaw, Mich. A fellow member of the 1/9’s Alpha
MORGAN: Page B2
Moving from survival to living
Network keeps the 1/9 brotherhood alive By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise John Warren, another member of the Vietnam-era 1st Battalion 9th Marines, discussed how associations like the 1/9 Network help veterans live with what they’ve survived. “The brotherhood of the Marine Corps is tight, very tight,” he said. “It continues even after you get out. They always go, ‘There’s no ex-Marine or former Marine.’ Once a Marine, always a Marine.” The 1/9 was a combat outfit, Warren stressed. Infantry, snipers and such. They went on a lot of search-and-destroy missions. They put their bodies and lives in harm’s way, every day, in an increasingly hostile area. Many of those who came back, came wounded or with long-term health issues.
Warren, who went on to a nearly 30-year career on the benefits side of the Veterans Administration (VA), lost the use of his right arm, and is now being treated for Agent Orangerelated lung cancer. “I felt an advantage, talking to and assisting our veterans and their families,” he said of his VA career, “because I sat on both sides of the fence. There’s the government side, and then there’s the military side that they had gone through. I believe I had a good rapport with all our veterans that I dealt with over the years.” Straddling fences is something he knows about, as the son of a French Canadian mother and a halfSeminole, half-African American father. Serving after the armed forces
WARREN: Page B2
Thank You for Serving Our Country and Protecting Our Freedom
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