Bob Caldwell was my closest friend at Shaker. We shared the existential discussions, enthusiasms, and adventures typical of high school boys awakening to a wider world. I well remember the day at lunch when with Ed Walsh the three of us enthused about going to Cuba to fight in the hills. Fortunately, Cuba quickly lost out to other interests (electric guitar for Ed).
Bob was passionate about military history, 20th century writers (Hemingway) and writing himself. In the Army, Bob served as a combat infantryman in Viet Nam in 1966-67. He had a distinguished career as a journalist in Ohio and San Diego, finishing as "Insight" Editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. His reporting on Mexican drug cartels in 2000 was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When Mary and I had lunch with him in 2012, Bob expressed particular satisfaction in his advocacy in the paper for bringing the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway to the San Diego waterfront as a memorial-museum ship. Visit the ship if you have the chance. It's very well done.
Politically, Bob was quite conservative. But, he also was clear-eyed about war's cruelty and resisted the smoothing over of that. Bob told me that he welcomed every invitation to speak to youth groups on the subject. He would convey war's human cost unvarnished. Shared below, as a way to remember him, are Bob's remarks at one such event.
Phil Padgett
"Remarks to Boy Scout groups and adults decorating veterans' graves at El Camino Memorial Park, California, Memorial Day weekend, 2012"
Robert J. Caldwell
"Scout leaders, Scouts, parents, ladies and gentlemen:Thank you for inviting me to represent our nation's veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.It's an honor to be here.
I've been asked to tell you what Memorial Day means to me.My war was the Vietnam War, for which I volunteered. Why?
First, because I loved my country. More specifically, because I believed then, as I believe today, that the United States was right to help South Vietnam defend itself against aggression by communist North Vietnam, aided by almost the entire communist world, notably including the then-Soviet Union and communist China.
This was a worthy and just cause.
Memorial Day is the one day of the year set aside for Americans to remember and honor our war dead. From 1775 through today, more than one million young Americans have given their lives in defense of this country and its vital interests around the world.
Fifty-eight thousand of those dead died in Vietnam. Every one of those 58,000 left a grieving family, loved ones, dear friends. Every one marked a life full of promise and hope for the future, a life cut cruelly short in the service of their country.
My time today is limited so I can offer only fleeting glimpses of all that I saw and experienced during my time in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967.What I remember so well -- indeed, can never forget -- are those I saw in Vietnam who gave what Abraham Lincoln called 'the last full measure of devotion.
I remember a young lieutenant from the 1st Cavalry Division. He was killed, along with several others, when a patrol from our military police unit was ambushed on a stretch of rural road in South Vietnam's heavily fought over Binh Dinh Province. The lieutenant's one-year tour was ending. It was to be his second-to-last day in Vietnam as he prepared to go home.
Instead, he lay dead beside me that morning up against a rice paddy dike. Truly, he gave that 'last full measure of devotion.'
I also remember -- indeed, can never forget -- our 1st Cavalry Division brothers who died at Fire Base Bird the night after Christmas, 1966. I was at a nearby 1st Cav helicopter landing zone when their bodies were brought back from Bird the next morning. Never had I seen so many dead GIs in one place. Dozens of them were laid out in rows, uncovered for identification. It was a ghastly sight that has haunted me for all the years since.
One boy in particular has always stuck in my mind. His blue eyes were open, starring sightlessly at the sky. His handsome, boyish face was poignantly peaceful in its deathly repose.
I wondered about his mom and dad, who did not yet know that their precious son had been killed in action in a desperate fight with a North Vietnamese force that outnumbered our Cav troopers at Bird four to one.
The 1st Cav won that battle but at a cruel cost in lives.
Those men, too, had given 'the last full measure of devotion' -- a band of brothers fighting through that long, awful night to save each other from a pitiless enemy who took no prisoners.
So if you ask what Memorial Day means to me, it means remembering and honoring these men who gave everything they had, and now lie in eternal rest at our nation's cemeteries, hallowed places like this.
A poet wrote of these honored dead, "they gave all their tomorrows for our today." And so they did.
Look around you at the beautiful country we have, at the precious freedoms we enjoy, at the boundless opportunity we are blessed to have. Those we remember and honor today PAID for all that. Never forget.
What do we owe them on Memorial Day?Respect, honor, tribute.
So, Scouts, decorate their graves today. Respect what they did. Honor their sacrifice. Pay them the heartfelt tribute they earned.
The Bible tells us that there is "no greater love than that a man shall lay down his life for his friends."
The honored dead that we remember today did just that, for each and every one of us."
What a beautiful tribute to a gentle soul whose sensitivity and honor are expressed in his speech to Boy Scouts and their families in a time when it was a revered activity. The words he spoke are timeless and would be befitting to today’s era.
Rest In Peace Bob Caldwell. May your words be remembered by those who knew you and those who heard you.
I remember Bob as a thoughtful, well-informed person. We did not socialize away from school but I remember periodic serious conversations with him about subjects that interested us both, mostly about history. I have profound admiration for someone who though not a fighter by nature had the guts to sign up and then apparently seek out combat in Vietnam. From his obituary we know that he came away with a reverence for those who gave their all on the battlefield, which he expressed eloquently over the years and which is not up for dispute. As a journalist in Vietnam during the same period he was there, and having returned there twice since then, I regret that he never got the essence of that conflict. Our government said we were there to "help South Vietnam defend itself against aggression by communist North Vietnam," but history just doesn't support that view. I only bring this up because if better decisions are to be made in the future, we have to look at the truth about the past with open eyes. That's a subject I wish we could revisit high school to hash over. RIP Bob Caldwell.
Philip Padgett (Padgett)
Gentle People,
Bob Caldwell was my closest friend at Shaker. We shared the existential discussions, enthusiasms, and adventures typical of high school boys awakening to a wider world. I well remember the day at lunch when with Ed Walsh the three of us enthused about going to Cuba to fight in the hills. Fortunately, Cuba quickly lost out to other interests (electric guitar for Ed).
Bob was passionate about military history, 20th century writers (Hemingway) and writing himself. In the Army, Bob served as a combat infantryman in Viet Nam in 1966-67. He had a distinguished career as a journalist in Ohio and San Diego, finishing as "Insight" Editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. His reporting on Mexican drug cartels in 2000 was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When Mary and I had lunch with him in 2012, Bob expressed particular satisfaction in his advocacy in the paper for bringing the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway to the San Diego waterfront as a memorial-museum ship. Visit the ship if you have the chance. It's very well done.
Politically, Bob was quite conservative. But, he also was clear-eyed about war's cruelty and resisted the smoothing over of that. Bob told me that he welcomed every invitation to speak to youth groups on the subject. He would convey war's human cost unvarnished. Shared below, as a way to remember him, are Bob's remarks at one such event.
Phil Padgett
"Remarks to Boy Scout groups and adults decorating veterans' graves at El Camino Memorial Park, California, Memorial Day weekend, 2012"
Robert J. Caldwell
"Scout leaders, Scouts, parents, ladies and gentlemen: Thank you for inviting me to represent our nation's veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It's an honor to be here.
I've been asked to tell you what Memorial Day means to me. My war was the Vietnam War, for which I volunteered. Why?
First, because I loved my country. More specifically, because I believed then, as I believe today, that the United States was right to help South Vietnam defend itself against aggression by communist North Vietnam, aided by almost the entire communist world, notably including the then-Soviet Union and communist China.
This was a worthy and just cause.
Memorial Day is the one day of the year set aside for Americans to remember and honor our war dead. From 1775 through today, more than one million young Americans have given their lives in defense of this country and its vital interests around the world.
Fifty-eight thousand of those dead died in Vietnam. Every one of those 58,000 left a grieving family, loved ones, dear friends. Every one marked a life full of promise and hope for the future, a life cut cruelly short in the service of their country.
My time today is limited so I can offer only fleeting glimpses of all that I saw and experienced during my time in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. What I remember so well -- indeed, can never forget -- are those I saw in Vietnam who gave what Abraham Lincoln called 'the last full measure of devotion.
I remember a young lieutenant from the 1st Cavalry Division. He was killed, along with several others, when a patrol from our military police unit was ambushed on a stretch of rural road in South Vietnam's heavily fought over Binh Dinh Province. The lieutenant's one-year tour was ending. It was to be his second-to-last day in Vietnam as he prepared to go home.
Instead, he lay dead beside me that morning up against a rice paddy dike. Truly, he gave that 'last full measure of devotion.'
I also remember -- indeed, can never forget -- our 1st Cavalry Division brothers who died at Fire Base Bird the night after Christmas, 1966. I was at a nearby 1st Cav helicopter landing zone when their bodies were brought back from Bird the next morning. Never had I seen so many dead GIs in one place. Dozens of them were laid out in rows, uncovered for identification. It was a ghastly sight that has haunted me for all the years since.
One boy in particular has always stuck in my mind. His blue eyes were open, starring sightlessly at the sky. His handsome, boyish face was poignantly peaceful in its deathly repose.
I wondered about his mom and dad, who did not yet know that their precious son had been killed in action in a desperate fight with a North Vietnamese force that outnumbered our Cav troopers at Bird four to one.
The 1st Cav won that battle but at a cruel cost in lives.
Those men, too, had given 'the last full measure of devotion' -- a band of brothers fighting through that long, awful night to save each other from a pitiless enemy who took no prisoners.
So if you ask what Memorial Day means to me, it means remembering and honoring these men who gave everything they had, and now lie in eternal rest at our nation's cemeteries, hallowed places like this.
A poet wrote of these honored dead, "they gave all their tomorrows for our today." And so they did.
Look around you at the beautiful country we have, at the precious freedoms we enjoy, at the boundless opportunity we are blessed to have. Those we remember and honor today PAID for all that. Never forget.
What do we owe them on Memorial Day? Respect, honor, tribute.
So, Scouts, decorate their graves today. Respect what they did. Honor their sacrifice. Pay them the heartfelt tribute they earned.
The Bible tells us that there is "no greater love than that a man shall lay down his life for his friends."
The honored dead that we remember today did just that, for each and every one of us."
Linda Katzive ((Weiner) Molnar)
What a beautiful tribute to a gentle soul whose sensitivity and honor are expressed in his speech to Boy Scouts and their families in a time when it was a revered activity. The words he spoke are timeless and would be befitting to today’s era.
Rest In Peace Bob Caldwell. May your words be remembered by those who knew you and those who heard you.
Linda Katzive Molnar
Robert P Wildau
I remember Bob as a thoughtful, well-informed person. We did not socialize away from school but I remember periodic serious conversations with him about subjects that interested us both, mostly about history. I have profound admiration for someone who though not a fighter by nature had the guts to sign up and then apparently seek out combat in Vietnam. From his obituary we know that he came away with a reverence for those who gave their all on the battlefield, which he expressed eloquently over the years and which is not up for dispute. As a journalist in Vietnam during the same period he was there, and having returned there twice since then, I regret that he never got the essence of that conflict. Our government said we were there to "help South Vietnam defend itself against aggression by communist North Vietnam," but history just doesn't support that view. I only bring this up because if better decisions are to be made in the future, we have to look at the truth about the past with open eyes. That's a subject I wish we could revisit high school to hash over. RIP Bob Caldwell.