Chapter 629

9/13/2022

Steve Rosettie

RIP

In 2010 I got in contact with these old ESF class mates for a reunion at Applebees in Herkimer. Olmsted- Shauger-Rosettie. Had wanted a 2015 meet-up but couldn't contact Rosettie. Just now found his 2014 obit while googling.

I wouldn't have recognized him if he was just walking down the street. He was all serious and pained from his struggles with the health care system and ailments of lymphatic /bladder/ prostate cancer etc.

More vets from the Vietnam war have died from cancer than were killed during the actual war. A nice local Hudson Valley video documents the personal loss of his Marine father who served in the heaviest concentration of the defoliant application in northern Vietnam near Dong Ha. 

The 1984 movie Secret Agent was the first best documentation of our Agent Orange (Dioxin) war.

The more widespread and long lasting effects of our chemical war policy will be seen in generation upon generation of birth defects in Vietnam itself. You wont be able to watch this award winning  video to it's end.

As a Sanitary Water Quality Engineer with the DEC I was involved in various ways with Dioxin, especially in the Niagara Frontier.

It was a far cry from the old days when he was happy go lucky. We were classmates for 4 years including these shots from Cranberry Lake when  7 of us shared a woodsy cabin with wood stove for ten weeks of forestry courses.

He was always a joker with a great off center sense of humor.

He shared these pictures from his war days in Vietnam. Steve got his draft notice just a month after graduation in 1968 like I did and was inducted from Albany, same as me. Not wanting a part in the war but nevertheless served from 1968-70.

 I recently went to his brother John's home three miles from my house for a chat. I hadn't recalled that Steve got a Bronze Star for meritorious service (mentioned in the obit) and wanted to get further details but they did not have the certificate.  They did know that the VA had eventually issued him some sort of certification for disability benefits that the health issues were related to Agent Orange exposure, which Steve was well aware of ever since leaving the service.

He called this hooch or bunker of sandbags his home taking shelter when the NVA mortar and rocket attacks were incoming. After induction 6/68 he started as a grunt in the 196th Light Infantry Brigade  in Company D . When not on patrol in the bush, provided perimeter security at LZ Ross beginning Dec '68. That was in the Quan Nam province, Que Son valley (northern) I Corps.  Also known as Hill 51.  Unit joined with 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) in 2-15-69, Chu Lai, Vietnam. 

 Appears like the 7th Marines took over LZ Ross after the spring of '68,  - thousands of pictures 

Believe he was not too fond of the rations but think he liked the ocassional peaches .

The other Steve at our meetup was Steve Shauger with T-33 MS Cornell, Hancock Field, Syracuse, air guard reserves (29yrs ret.). Also at Burlington VT  T-33 trainer , Martin B-57 bomber, F-4 Phantom jet

He flew all over Vietnam in all sorts of aircraft. A lot from Cam Rahn Bay. But he did a lot of transport in cargo planes shuttling all manner of things from Oxen, to Special Forces to Viet Cong themselves. I asked were they prisoners but he said no, laughing. We didn't get into all the details but I'm sure he at least delivered barrels of Agent Orange throughout the theater, or maybe even sprayed the product.