Photo By Cpl. Mark Watola | Sgt. Jesse Clark, a Marine with Wounded Warrior Battalion-East works on a 1970...... read more read more
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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Marines who served in Vietnam teamed up with Marines currently serving to fulfill the dream of a Marine who gave his life in Vietnam.
Arthur W. Machen, known to most as Peter, went to Marine Corps recruit training Feb. 5, 1969. Before he left, he had a dream to return and buy a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396.
In the summer of 1969 Peter left for Vietnam and after one month of fighting he was shot and injured. He was treated for his wounds at the hospital ship USS Sanctuary and then at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Peter was then flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland where he died shortly undergoing surgery.
Decades later Peter’s brother, Jack Machen, looked through Peter’s memorabilia and found his pay book and photos. He then got in contact with one of Marines deployed with Peter, Carmen Russoniello, where they collaborated and came up with a project to build the car Peter dreamed of buying after his return from Vietnam.
The goal of the project was to bring together Marines of the past and present sharing the common goal of memorializing Peter and honor his family by metaphorically bringing him home.
“When I heard the story of Peter, it was touching,” said Sgt. John Wheeler, a Marine with Wounded Warrior Battalion East and West Palm Beach, Florida native. “I’m about to be medically retired and I won’t be around Marines as much, and I want to leave a lasting footprint by helping out with the Chevelle project.”
Carmen, a professor and director of the Psychotherapy and Biofeedback Lab at East Carolina University, studies and treats traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder within veterans. He collaborated with Peter’s brother to create the Chevelle project, which helped Marines with WWB-E in addition to honoring Peter.
“Working on cars is therapeutic for a lot of Marines at Wounded Warrior Battalion,” said Jared Dugger, retired staff sergeant and Chevelle project manager and Dalton, Georgia native. “Not only did the Marines work on a project they enjoy, they got to meet Carmen and hear about his experiences with Peter in Vietnam.”
When the Chevelle is finished the family plans to enjoy Peter’s dream car for a short time but ultimately want the car to go toward a good cause. The Chevelle is slated to be auctioned off, and the money raised through the project is planned to go toward future projects for WWB-E.
“We just mounted the engine and transmission to the chassis,” said Dugger. “Next is cleaning, painting and mounting the body to the chassis. We are planning to finish work on the Chevelle by the first of 2015.”
| Date Taken: | 09.29.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2014 09:14 |
| Story ID: | 145185 |
| Location: | JACKSONVILLE, NC, US |
| Hometown: | DALTON, GA, US |
| Hometown: | WEST PALM BEACH, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wounded Warriors memorialize fallen Vietnam Marine, by Cpl Mark Watola, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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