“That’s the only two things I wanted,” Cantu said Sunday in Woodsboro at the Memorial Day celebration on the Square.
When his battalion of just under 300 men was ordered to the Ia Drang Valley at the Cambodian Border on a search and destroy mission led by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, Cantu had no idea that 79 of his buddies would lie dead on the battlefield or that another 135 would suffer life-threatening wounds.
Nor did he realize they had landed in a hot spot or that he would come face-to-face with his mortality until the bullets whooshed past his head.
The epic battle likely would have gone unnoticed if a young, freckled-faced young war reporter from Refugio had not finagled his way onto a helicopter during the raging battle.
“I looked up and saw this guy with several cameras around his neck taking pictures,” Cantu said. “Bullets were flying everywhere. I dropped to the ground trying to find any cover I could. I thought he would be shot ducking in and out behind a termite hill to take pictures. Then I recognized him. I called out, Joe! Joe Galloway!. It’s me, Vince Cantu from Refugio,”
The two young men crawled on their bellies to each other to embrace.
Both survived the onslaught, and Galloway and Moore would later tell the world what happened those three days in the award-winning book, “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young.” Galloway and Cantu will be bound in brotherhood forever, as only soldiers in war can be.
“The Lord almighty heard my prayers and allowed me to survive,” Cantu said.
Emotions overtake Cantu on the podium at the gazebo and he stands silent for a moment. The faces on the citizens gathered round reflect a tearful understanding.
Vietnam was an ugly time for young men called to service. No parades greeted them and many were not welcomed back as heroes. But Sunday on the Square, soldiers of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan march to the cemetery with heads held high to pay homage at the graves of their fallen comrades.
When they arrive at the Square, the Woodsboro Boy Scouts raise Old Glory. WHS senior Laura Greenly salutes and leads the Pledge of Allegiance. Youngsters Zeke Montalvo and Christi Martinez lift their trumpets to play taps. Young Sarah Lopez sings the National Anthem.
Many of the 100 who sit in lawn chairs or stand under the shade trees are too young to remember the Vietnam War. Both young and old wave the red, white and blue.
Cantu says he is typical of hundreds of other county citizens called to duty. He picked cotton in the fields until the Cantu boys, both Vince and Fanny, turned to music. They called their band the Rockin’ Dominoes.
“My father, Charro Cantu, bought instruments for everyone in the band,” Cantu says. “Of course, we paid him back.”
Music ended his days in the cotton patch but today, he takes a memory trip back to his youth —and the war.
Cantu is playing his music again. He tells the crowd that his band will play a gig at Padilla Hall next month and invites everyone to come.
The ceremony that opened with a prayer from the Rev. Michael Mumme, ends with one from the Rev. David Mondine. Whatever wounds that were opened 50 years ago are healed, at least in this crowd today.
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