Robert Joseph Araujo enlisted in the Marines 5 October 1966, at a Brooklyn Recruiting Office.
He arrived in Vietnam 20 April 1967 and was assigned to Hotel Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division.
He was killed while in combat by an explosive device during Operation King Fisher, Con Thien-Camo Lo Road, north of Strongpoint C-2. Bobby was 20 years old.
21 Marines died in this battle. You can read about it here.
Bobby wanted to be a Marine just like my late father- Lt. Robert L. Baeza, FDNY (ret.) and Lance Corporal, USMC for 6 years. My father never encouraged Bobby to join the service. Nor did he ever encourage me to join.
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My father would speak about his time in the Marine Corps but he rarely said a word about Bobby. The few times he did talk to me about Bobby there was a sadness that came over him. I could see hurt in his eyes. I had never seen my father show such a sign of sadness (though only discernible to me). But there was something else he was feeling that I dared not ask him about. I do not know if it was a burden of guilt because Bobby had become a Marine because he wanted to emulate my father. But I later found that my father did not endorse any of the unconstitutional non-congressionally declared foreign wars we always found ourselves bogged down in-including Vietnam. He saw the human tragedy on both sides. I’m pretty sure that every time he heard about a U.S. service member killed in action in one of these wars he saw Bobby’s face and felt the pain.
My father listened to Don Mclean’s “American Pie” record on an 8 track tape. The album was released in October of 1971. Aside from the hit songs “American Pie” and “Vincent” my father seemed to like a rather sad song titled “The Grave.” I believe this song reminded him of Bobby. It certainly reminded me of Bobby and all of the other souls killed in action during immoral unconstitutional wars.
I wish I had taken the time to tell my father that he was not responsible for Bobby’s death. More nefarious forces were involved on that fateful day in October of 1967 as they are now in 2019.
We all suffer from these endless empire building/policeman of the world wars. And it is my opinion we will continue to suffer until the Empire collapses. And it will.
Please listen to Don McLean’s “The Grave.”
And then follow along with the lyrics:
The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors
And the brown earth bleached white
At the edge of his gravestone
He’s gone
When the wars of our nation did beckon
The man, barely twenty, did answer the calling
Proud of the trust
That he placed in our nation
He’s gone
But eternity knows him
And it knows what we’ve done
And the rain fell like pearls
On the leaves of the flowers
Leaving brown, muddy clay
Where the earth had been dry
And deep in the trench
He waited for hours
As he held to his rifle
And prayed not to die
But the silence of night
Was shattered by fire
As the guns and grenades
Blasted sharp through the air
One after another
His comrades were slaughtered
In the morgue of marines
Alone, standing there
He crouched ever lower
Ever lower, with fear
They can’t let me die
They can’t let me die here!
I’ll cover myself
With the mud and the earth
I’ll cover myself
I know I’m not brave!
The earth, the earth
The earth is my grave
The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors
And the brown earth bleached white
At the edge of his gravestone
He’s gone
