Brothers in arms? Nope; first cousins
They were brothers in arms, engaged in combat at the same time, in the same place.
Bob Martin, of Coeur d’Alene, and the late Richard “Dick” Miller, of Burlington, Iowa, were also first cousins.
But in 1967, as they fought the North Vietnamese in the Que Son Valley, neither man knew the other existed.
“I didn’t find out any of that until 1993, until I found the rest of my family on my dad’s side,” Martin said.
Martin, the commander of Coeur d’Alene Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 889, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1964 when he was 17. He completed four tours in Vietnam, earned three Purple Hearts and numerous other medals of valor. Martin remained in the Army until retiring in 1983. At that time, he lived in the Chicago area and after a few years with the Illinois State Police, he went into the private sector working as a detective until he retired again in 2014.
Martin’s mother and father divorced when Martin was 8 months old. Martin’s mother remarried and until he was a teen, Martin did not know his stepfather was not his biological father.
His mother told him who his father was, but had no photo of him and little other information.
Years later, Martin was sitting with his wife, Diane, on their deck and talking about the father he never knew.
“I said, you know, I don’t even know what my father looks like. And Diane looked at me, and she said, ‘You’re a detective. Why don’t you go detect?” Martin said.
It was 1993, and four months later he found his father’s family, but never got to meet his father. The man passed away in Pomona, Calif., in 1989.
But Martin met his father’s widow and a large family reunion was held in Burlington, Iowa.
“And that’s when I met Dick,” Martin said.
Martin recognized a cavalry insignia on Miller’s hat. They started talking and Martin mentioned the Que Son Valley and they soon realized they were both there at the same time.
It was Miller’s first combat mission. He had enlisted earlier that year.
“At the time my unit of the 101st Airborne Division was heavily engaged and outnumbered by the 2nd North Vietnamese Division,” Martin said. “Dick’s unit came to our assistance just in time, because by Oct. 8, the fighting was so fierce that at one point, we’d been relegated to hand-to-hand fighting.”
Martin said Miller later fought in the Hue District during the Tet Offensive of 1968.
Miller eventually became a sergeant and squad leader, earning two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star for valor and the Combat Infantryman badge.
During the fighting Miller’s platoon went from about 35 men down to nine, the rest killed or wounded, Martin said.
“The war had a profound effect on Dick. Eventually he was diagnosed with severe PTSD,” Martin said. “I guess, Dick, with his poetry and his sketches, that’s how he dealt with the ghosts and nightmares.”
Through the years before his cousin’s death in 2005, Martin and Miller had many long conversations about the war and how they felt about it.
Martin has a photo of Miller with his squad in Vietnam. It hangs on the wall in the museum at the VFW Post in Coeur d’Alene, 406 N. Fourth St.
Miller’s simple yet powerful sketches portray images of emotional moments experienced by soldiers: A helicopter in the air, a soldier pulling one of the wounded to safety, two soldiers sitting — one on a stump, the other on a box — talking.
His poetry has the same effect.
“My favorite one is ‘Shaken Moments,’” Martin said. “That hits a chord with me. When Dick wrote that, he had me read it. I said, ‘Man, you got this one covered.’”
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Editor’s note: To learn more about Bob Martin’s experiences in Vietnam and his work with the VFW, read this Sunday’s In Person profile on the first page of the Lifestyles section.