Roy James Juers

(01/22/1945 – 09/12/1967)

Roy James Juers was a gentle & loving uncle, a loyal brother, and a dedicated Marine.  He volunteered for Vietnam service 3 times before being assigned there, and was just 2 weeks shy of coming home before being killed in action (KIA), on what was actually September 11th here in the States.  At only 22, there aren’t a whole lot of pictures of him… but all I have, I’ll put up here… Love you, Uncle Roy!

For a view of some of his military records, certificates, condolence letters & articles, go see some of the Juers-Related Documents.

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Uncle Roy was a very cool guy.  He was an athlete, a singer, a romantic, a patriot… kinda like me, except I didn’t/don’t have the mental capacity to engage in warfare.  It doesn’t make anyone who does a bad person or anything, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not who I am… and I actually regret that sometimes.

I’ll add things about Uncle Roy as I remember them, or learn them; Today, 04/28/2014, I learned something new about him… courtesy of Sue Hagelmann (formerly Sue Borda), who dated Roy’s older brother, Gerry, back in the early 60’s.  Thanks Sue…

Many pictures you see of Uncle Roy are with his then-girlfriend, Diane.  She & Roy were quite a thing, up until the time he went into the Marine Corps, which took him to the Dominican Republic in ’65 & then to Vietnam in ’66, where he ultimately was killed in action in September of ’67 with the 3/2/9.  I’m beginning to find some stuff online about the 3/26 & the 3/2/9 that he served with… and from this blog, I found this:

On the morning of 12 September, 2/9 was awakened by a barrage of 82mm mortar fire. Several Marines were wounded. As the helicopters arrived to medevac the wounded, the battalion was subjected to second barrage. Both the commanding officer, LtCol William D. Kent and his executive officer were wounded.

I thought Diane’s last name was Price all this time… why, I don’t know.  But what a relief that Sue was able to give me more info… I only want truth represented here… her last name was actually Campagna… wish I knew her middle name because I would love to hear stories from her about my uncle.  What I also learned was sad however; apparently she had written him a Dear John letter shortly before he was killed… she apparently hooked up with a married man name Carmine & got pregnant.  Carmine then left his wife & married Diane, and thus she became Diane Martino.

I find it ironic that I was hoping to get more information, only to discover the information isn’t what I wanted to hear.   But such as it is with things you dig up… all the surface above grows over & becomes pretty, but underneath, there are secrets covered in dirt.  Okay, so I’m over-dramatizing now.

Good bad or indifferent, Diane made her choices, as did Uncle Roy.  I think her choice sucked because Uncle Roy was a great man, but then again I can’t imagine what it must be like to have someone away for a long time in a war.  I’m at least happy to know that it wasn’t just a fling or anything… she built a life & family with Carmine… so tremendous good came from that… but in the end, I’m still upset she broke my uncle’s heart & then he died.

Regardless, I’d still one day like to speak with Diane, because my uncle’s prime was when he was 17-21, and she was there for a lot of it… I bet there are pictures & stories that she could share, that would enrich the lives of us surviving relatives… that of course, remains to be seen.. I hope I find her…

Soon to be updated… hopefully.

Other sources of information about the war:

Visit the Site for 2nd Battalion 9th Marines
Visit this great blog with detailed info about the 2/9’s role in the war…
Visit the site for Marines of the 3/26
Visit the site for detailed information on the 3/26’s tour in Vietnam

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I found an online memorial for Uncle Roy from one of the guys he served with for a long time in the Marine Corps.  As of October 2015, he’s still alive and on Facebook, and I’ve reached out to him, but he hasn’t responded in any way.  It’s unfortunate, because he’s one of only a few people who could really give me good intel on Uncle Roy.  Who knows, maybe, he’ll reach out one day… Anyway, this in Ken Magyar’s online memorial…

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Back in 1994, I lived on Long Island, in a basement apartment at my friend Mike Wolfe’s house in Farmingville.  I lived there from 1992-1996.  In August of 1994, Uncle Roy’s medals, which hadn’t been seen in about 125 years, spontaneously showed up at a VFW Post in Hicksville.  It was a great moment for our family, so here is what I wrote about it.

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After the medals were back in the family’s hands, there was a followup piece I wrote about it, because they have now come to me, and I humbly will care for them until it’s time to pass them on to someone, perhaps my daughter or grandson or my sister’s kids…

 

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Pictures

To enlarge each picture, simply click on it.  Navigate left & right using the small arrows at the bottom; Click the enlarged image again to close it.

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If you have pictures of Roy that aren’t shown here, I’d appreciate it if you’d upload them, so I can add them to his gallery:

[ngg_uploader id=12]

Please do it! We need more pictures of him!

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