Community Corner
Local Vietnam Vet Followed In Family's Footsteps
Jim Mertz also volunteers his time to educate on the importance of patriotism and talks to local fifth graders about the American flag.
More than 40 years later, Jim Mertz recalls vividly being hit during "in-city fighting’’ while serving in Vietnam.
An Army veteran, Memorial Day is just one more day in the year when the Algonquin resident remembers the horrific time he spent caught up in battle.
"I wanted to be like my uncle who was in the Korean War, my dad who was in WWII and both my grandpas and one grandma,’’ Mertz said of all of his family members who served their country.
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Drafted when he was 19 years old, he was deployed on Feb. 15, 1967. Traveling with an engineering outfit, his duties included going out into the field to build small houses for American Green Beret Advisors.
"They were in some pretty bad places,’’ he said, recalling one especially frightening time. "We got left behind one time – me and another guy. We just had to make our way to the airfield three miles away.’’
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Suddenly, he found himself defenseless in the midst of battle.
"I dove into a doorway – it was in-city fighting. I got hit in the arm – caught part of a bullet. I was fighting behind a cement wall. We were in a firefight – I ran out of ammunition All I could hear was fighting and explosions and machine gun fire and there I was without even ammunition.’’
Before being drafted, Mertz worked as an apprentice draftsman for a model company and was hired back when he returned, eventually going to work for a tool and die company.
But he never forgets what he went through on the battlefield or when he returned home.
"I just pictured people thanking me,’’ he said. "I wore my uniform for one day (after coming home) but nobody cared.’’
When soldiers came back from Desert Storm, he and three other Vietnam Vets dressed in their jungle attire and met them at the airport, thanking them "so they didn’t have what we had,’’ said Mertz, who has lived in Algonquin with his wife Diane for 34 years.
Mertz is now teaching his 7-year-old grand daughter Macayla Wilson about patriotism, giving her all of the "mini medals’’ he earned.
"I’m trying to teach her about America – why America is good,’’ said Mertz, who also speaks to local fifth graders about the American flag.
