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Originally Post on The Daytona Beach News Journal

By AUDREY PARENTE, Staff writer

FLAGLER BEACH -- He was 5 when his father's flag-draped coffin returned from the Vietnam War.

Today -- on the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when the last American left the embassy, marking the war's end and paving the way for reunification of North and South Vietnam -- Jeffrey Joyce, 48, of Palm Coast finally understands what it was like for his father. All because of a shadow box recently relayed cross-country from California by a brotherhood of Marines.

Joyce's father "was attacked by Vietnamese regulars and outnumbered," he said. "He was seriously wounded but refused medical attention and assisted in reorganizing his men until they eliminated the enemy. By the time they finally got to him, he was dead."

His grandmother, not his mother, received the folded flag and a Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" during the funeral services.

At 18, Joyce got those items and a few belongings of Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Thomas Joyce from an aunt.

"I was given the flag, some medals and ribbons, a few letters and insignias," said the son. "I noticed he had more ribbons than some medals he should have received, and some medals didn't have ribbons. It was all mixed up."

Joyce had asked his mom and others about the medals and his father's service, but "nobody knew" much about them.

Joyce did have memories of his military father, "a great dad, but strict and disciplined. He wanted the best for us." And Joyce remembered moving a lot before his father died.

"We lived in Hawaii, Virginia and South Carolina. My mother said we lived in San Diego, but I was too small to remember that," Joyce said. "Dad became a drill instructor in 1964 at Parris Island. He didn't complain and did his job."

Joyce's father volunteered three times for service in Vietnam and was killed during his third tour, on May 14, 1967, but the rest of the story eluded him.

"I kept going to the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs), but it was either the wrong paperwork or the wrong place or the wrong person," Joyce said. "I almost gave up but when I moved from up North; I said, 'I am going to give it one last shot.' "

On the Internet he found the Vietnam Motorcycle Club and posted a request for help.

"Combatants help combatants," said Wayne "Grumpy" McVeigh, a retired Marine in California who saw the post and decided to help. He contacted Korean and Vietnam War veteran William "Duke" Steinken, who "was shot down twice but is still pretty sharp. He has a method of looking things up."

McVeigh explained that in war "nobody's called by their real name, to have a sense of being close but not too close, because in one second they are gone," he said. But now, the surviving Marines work together, especially to honor the fallen.

"They died in place of me. All I can do now is repay what they did by doing what they would if they were here," McVeigh said.

"Once we verified his service and what was on his award list, we could purchase copies of the medals. We got the minis and the full sized ribbons, a rank patch and his actual unit patch," McVeigh said. He acquired a photo and details about the gunnery sergeant's service and put together a shadow box.

"I talked to my brothers in the motorcycle club and we do a Pony Express. One group takes it a certain distance, then another, until it gets to Florida," McVeigh said. "On Easter Sunday, 20 or 25 of the brothers rolled in and gave him the box."

Barry "No Way" Minnick of Jacksonville joined in the relay.

"They flew the shadow box to San Antonio and a brother from St. Augustine brought it back, and within a week we called Jeff and made out (like) we were going to visit him," Minnick said. He told Joyce a few of the "brothers" had some questions to ask.

Leon "Pillow Man" Church of the New Smyrna Beach Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club was among the 25 motorcyclists who thundered into Joyce's gated community.

"It was emotional for everybody," Church said. "We go to the wall to help put a face on someone who was killed in action."

Joyce thought a few veterans were coming to ask him some questions.

"I was overwhelmed," he said. "I cried."

He learned his father aided the company corpsmen in treating and evacuating the wounded during a deadly night defensive along a river in Da Nang. He also learned his father had served in the Korean War, putting two years in the Army.

"I didn't even know about Korea. My father never really talked about what he did," Joyce said.

His mother, Carol Mangieri of Palm Coast, said she didn't know either.

"That was a surprise to me also. He was 7 1/2 years older, we didn't go to school together or anything, and I didn't know him long before we got married," she said. "A member of his family interfered during the funeral and told the person who delivered the flag it was to go to his mother. It wasn't right, but eventually the flag came back to Jeffrey."

And now, "it all makes sense," said Jeffery Joyce. "I understand why he did what he did because of the camaraderie of these guys. I have a lot of closure."