Historic City News recounts that the family of Leo C. Chase, Sr., has been a part of the St Augustine community for generations. Recently, the spirit of his son, Leo C. Chase, Jr., was remembered by Vietnam Veterans of America when the local chapter was renamed in his honor.
The late Chase, Sr., and his wife Pauline C. Chase, of Jacksonville, founded the traditionally black funeral home on West King Street that still operates today.
“Leo Chase Jr., was the first St Johns County resident to be killed in the Vietnam War,” Chapter 1084, President Robert Dinkins told reporters. “The 23-year-old Army PFC was killed five days before he was to have rotated home.”
Chase’s mother, brother William Jefferson, and daughter Carla Chase, all attended the recent meeting when the chapter was officially renamed “Leo C. Chase Chapter 1084, Vietnam Veterans of America”.
“We have applied to our national organization to permanently change our chapter’s name to honor the memory of Leo C. Chase, Jr.,” said Dinkins. “Tonight, we celebrate that our application has been approved.”
Chase and over 300 fellow servicemen gave their lives for their country in the Ia Drang Valley during the Pleiku campaign on November 15, 1965. The Ia Drang battle was dramatized in the book and film, “We Were Soldiers”.
The fledgling group received more good news, when Dinkins announced that Chapter 1084 now has a permanent meeting location thanks to the generosity of the members of the Saint Augustine South Improvement Association.
For more information about the chapter and its activities, visit their website at http://www.vva1084.org/ The meetings are now held at 7:00 p.m. on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 709 Royal Road in St Augustine.
Photo credits: © 2015 Historic City News contributed photograph by Michael Isam
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