A Glenville family with a military tradition that spans generations was reminded of a tragedy, and also their family pride, when Glenville town historian, Joan Szablewski, recently came across some obituaries in old editions of the Scotia-Glenville Journal.
She noticed an obituary for a young man who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1968, who might have been the brother of Roberta Porter of Delmar, who works at a diner in Glenville that Szablewski and her husband frequent for breakfast.
Szablewski told Porter about the obituary for David Vollmer.
We mentioned it to her, and she said that was her brother. Then she said there was another article that I apparently missed so I went back and looked for it,` said Szablewski.
That’s when she noticed a letter that was published in the Scotia-Glenville Journal that dated back to Nov. 28, 1968. It was from Vollmer, who was killed in action on Nov. 17, 1968, at 21 years old. He wrote the letter to tell everyone in town about things in Vietnam, but by the time the letter had arrived ` 11 days after it was written ` Vollmer had been killed in action.
When Szablewski approached Porter with the news, Porter was reminded of her family’s military tradition, which continues today.
`Three of my brothers were in the U.S. Marine Corps and David was the only one who served in Vietnam,` said Porter.
`After David was killed my other two brothers were exempt,` said Porter.
Porter said that her father was extremely proud of being in the military ` he was in the Navy and served during WWII and then enlisted in the Navy Reserves and served from 1958 to 1968. Three out of his four sons ` with the exclusion of his youngest son, Timothy ` were Marines.
Porter said that she believed her brothers joined the military and followed in their father’s footsteps because he was `extremely proud of being in the Navy.`
She said that after he came home from serving in World War II and married her mother and started having children, it was one of his greatest desires to go back into the military.
`He would have stayed forever and a day,` said Porter.
A problem with his hearing that left him unable to detect high-pitched sounds forced him to retire in 1968. She said that her brothers joined the Marine Corps instead of the Navy as a `personal choice.`
Each brother left for the Marine Corps on Dec. 30 of different years, beginning in 1966. The date was also younger brother Timothy’s birthday, as well as the date of their father’s funeral, who was 86 when he died in December 2008.
`It was pretty amazing. Each one of them went on my birthday ` a year apart from each other,` said Tim Vollmer who lives in Glenville with his mother, Rita. `I was very proud of all three of them.`
Vollmer said his brother Michael, also known as Mick, left right after David Vollmer was killed in action, choosing not to defer his deployment even though he had the option.
`We have some tough brothers, and they got it from my father,` said Vollmer.
The Vollmer family is proud of their military tradition. Porter, the only girl in her family, experienced a different kind of pride.
`I was very proud of my brothers ` all of them. I loved seeing them in their uniforms when they would come home on leave. They would come to school to pick me up,` said Porter.
She also noted that it was difficult when she started dating, because her brothers were extra-tough on the guys she brought home.
`It had its good points, and it also has its negatives,` said Porter.
She said that when her brother died, she and her family were aware that it could happen because he was at war, but they never believed it could happen to their family.
`We didn’t think that he wouldn’t come home, but reality hit very hard for this entire family,` said Porter.
Mick Vollmer, the last brother to enter the military, left about a month after David Vollmer’s death.
`He could have deferred ` it wasn’t like he couldn’t have gone [later] because he had already signed on the dotted line,` said Porter.
However, he didn’t want to wait. He would have had to postpone his departure until March of the following year.
`[My mother] was extremely worried for my brother Mick who was just entering the Marine Corps,` said Porter.
He had just gotten orders for Vietnam after he had gotten back from boot camp, but her father `put the kibosh` on those orders, and had them changed.
`They were very fearful of something happening to their remaining children, and I think that’s why my youngest brother never ended up going into the military,` said Porter.
`They felt like they had given enough from our family,` said Porter, adding that her mother had always been `very supportive of the military way of life,` joining the America Gold Star Mothers, an organization for mothers who have lost a son or daughter in service.
Now, the next generation of the family is joining the military.
George Vollmer’s grandson James Vollmer has been in the Air Force since 1987. Nathanial Wilson, who is in the Marine Corps, and is Porter’s son-in-law, will leave for Afghanistan in March of 2010.
`My father was extremely proud of him enlisting in the Marine Corps,` said Porter. `[My daughter] is a little nervous ` of course we all are ` but that’s kind of how it is when you’re in the military, and we all understand that.“