Home | Angelillo Family History - Leon Nicholas Angelo in 1964

Leon N. Angelo (1931-2003)

My father died on 11 April 2003. This photograph is from October 1964, in Oceanside, California, when my father was a major in the infantry, on the way to war, S-3 1st Recon Bn. (Reconnaissance Battalion), in Vietnam. The photograph was taken by a nine-year-old child with a child's camera.

Leon N. Angelo,
Colonel  U.S.M.C.
1931  -  2003

In those days, at the beginning of the war, we were told and we believed that it was a war between the Free World and Communism, of democracy versus dictatorship, of solidarity with the South Vietnamese people in defense of common values. That was a naive view, because it overlooked that the United States was also involved in an anti-colonial war as well as a civil war between North and South Vietnam.

In the spring of 1965, my father was engaged in search and destroy operations in Military Region One, the five northern provinces of South Vietnam, as an infantry officer with the Ninth Marines, 1st Marine Division. It was at this time that he was exposed to Agent Orange, which is a defoliant (herbicide) containing dioxin, that the U.S. military sprayed over Vietnam during the war. More than 1/2 million Vietnamese are still suffering from the effects of this highly toxic chemical. It contributed to my father's early death. The United States has never made reparation to the Vietnamese people for their suffering linked to Agent Orange. [Atomic bomb tests in 1955.]

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The URL of this Web page: https://www.roangelo.net/angelo/1964.html
Last revised: 24 February 2007 : 2007-02-24 by Robert [Wesley] Angelo.

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