Clinton Township

Love, loss and healing after Vietnam

By Heidi Roman
C & G Staff Writer

Photo by Heidi Roman Clinton Township resident Mary Compeau wears the Marine Corps insignia around her neck in honor of Barnes, a childhood friend. She was instrumental in bringing The Wall That Heals to the township.

Activities planned for The Wall That Heals • The Wall That Heals memorial will be escorted to the Clinton Township Civic Center by the Patriot Guard Riders and Blue Knights Aug. 31. The wall will be constructed between the township offices and the Clinton-Macomb Public Library and remains guarded during its entire visit. • A free showing of the HBO documentary “Taking Chance” will air at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library’s main branch, 40900 Romeo Plank Road in Clinton Township, at 7 p.m. Sept. 1. The film stars Kevin Bacon and outlines the journey a fallen Marine’s remains make from battlefield in Iraq to burial. The library will also have a display of memorabilia from World War I and World War II. • The Wall That Heals exhibition will be on display at the Clinton Township Civic Center, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, from Sept. 2-5. The exhibit is open 24 hours a day. • Opening ceremonies will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 2. Activities include the blessing of the wall, music, several guest speakers and a flyover from Selfridge Air National Guard Base. • Closing ceremonies begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 5. The program will include a motor escort from Resurrection Cemetery.

Resident hopes traveling memorial allows others to

pay respect to the fallen

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Most of those who served in the Vietnam War were just a few years out of high school. Some of them left wives at home; some left girlfriends. Many came home to marry those girls and have a chance at a life.

Lance Cpl. George Barnes’ story is about one who did not.

He left a girl behind, and if she could turn back the clock, their story would have ended differently.

“We were just kids living on the lake, laughing, skiing, growing up,” Mary Compeau said. They lived on Lakeville Lake, north of Rochester, and spent four years together before Barnes enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps with his brother, Larry. She was 17 and he was 22.

Just before he left for Vietnam, they had a fight. Her last words to him: “We’ll talk about it when you get back.”

They never got the chance to patch things up. He wrote letters to her from the battlefield, but she was still upset with him and never answered back.

Barnes died on Nov. 22, 1968, five months to the day after his deployment.

“We thought things would never change,” Compeau remembers. “I’m sure he assumed he’d come back and pick right back up where he left off.”

It was a source of guilt for her for decades.

Compeau married, had a daughter, moved to Oregon and divorced, but eventually made amends with her teenage self. She visited Barnes’ name etched into the stone of The Wall That Heals, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with the names of the other 58,266 servicemen and women that never came home.

“I wrote him the letter I never wrote him,” she said. “I told him why I was mad at him, why he hurt me, and that I would always love him.”

Now Compeau’s made it her mission to help others let go of their guilt and pay the respect due to those who lost their lives in the war. Vietnam veterans returned to a divided nation where many put the blame for the war on them, treating them as scum rather than stars.

“I think, as a nation, people are shameful about that part of our history,” Compeau said.

She’s stayed active in veterans’ affairs and sent Barnes’ picture to Washington, D.C., so it can be displayed at The Wall on his birthday. She registered his Purple Heart and still stays in touch with his 84-year-old mother in Imlay City and his brother, a Marine living in Muskegon.

In 2009 she got in touch with Barnes’ friends and fellow Marines, learning as much as she could about how he lived and how he died.

“They dredge up those horrible memories for me, because I was questing,” she said. “They are the heroes.”

It was her idea to bring The Wall That Heals to Clinton Township, where she now lives.

Mary Ann Hosey, administrative aide to the township trustees, said Compeau did a lot of the research into the memorial and got the ball rolling. She asked if she could help guard the wall at night or at least spend some quiet time with Barnes’ name.

“It really touched me,” Hosey said.

Compeau believes visiting the memorial can help people get closure.

“There are people in the area who are going to gain healing by coming to the Wall,” she said. “By touching the name of a buddy who didn’t come home and telling them they’re not forgotten, maybe — just maybe — they can leave that guilt behind.”

 Compeau also helps distribute the HBO documentary “Taking Chance,” which tells the story about the journey one Marine’s remains took from Iraq back to the United States. It will be shown Sept. 1 at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library, next to the Civic Center.

“(The film) answered all my questions about what happened to George,” she said. “That movie meant a lot to me. Everybody in America needs to see this film.”

The Wall That Heals will be on display at the Civic Center, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, from Sept. 2-5. It’s open 24 hours a day.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Heidi Roman at hroman@candgnews.com or at (586)218-5006.