Vietnam Army Ranger killed in combat remembered decades later

EASTPOINTE — It has been more than 50 years since Lon Michael Holupko was killed in the Vietnam war, but Michaelene Buczak still thinks about him.

They were classmates at Detroit’s Grant Junior High and Osborn High School, where he was known as “Lonnie.”

“He was very tall, very handsome and very quiet. He had a lovely twinkle in his eye. When you passed in the hall, he’d say hello and use your name, too. He was very popular,” Buczak recalled. “He was a very nice guy. I never forgot him. You don’t forget your grade school, junior high and high school friends.”

Buczak honored his memory at the Eastpointe Memorial Day parade May 26. She decorated her car with photos and tributes about her former classmate and drove in the parade with the other participants.

“I chose him specifically. Memorial Day is for the soldiers that were killed in service, in the war,” the Eastpointe resident said. ‘That’s what it’s all about. It’s about people who didn’t survive the service.”

Holupko was of the 1st Cavalry Division, 75th Infantry Ranger, H Company. Buczak’s display caught the attention of spectators.

“It was fantastic,” she said. “I was so happy I did it.”

When cars lined up before the parade began, one veteran asked about the lineup.

“After I told him Lonnie’s story, he then walked to Lonnie’s poster, bowed his head, and crossed himself with the sign of the cross three times,” she said.

Holupko, 20, was killed during a mission July 10, 1969, in the province of Tay Ninh, South Vietnam. This week marks the 56th anniversary of the young man’s death. Buczak remembers the shock when neighborhood friends heard he made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

“The funeral home was packed,” Buczak said.

Holupko is among the tens of thousands of veterans whose names are etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Loved ones who knew him have left messages on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website at vvmf.org.

During their school days, there was a rumor going around that Holupko had a crush on Buczak and on another girl.

“Someone mentioned he started liking me. He may have been one of the first crushes I had on a guy back then. I wasn’t ready for that,” Buczak said. So she encouraged the other classmate to date him, telling her, “I think you guys would be a real cute couple.”

 

‘He felt like it was his duty’
Holupko dropped out of business school to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam conflict.

“He didn’t discuss it with Mom and Dad. He went ahead and did it,” said Holupko’s sister, Charlene (Holupko) Cancelosa. “He felt like it was his duty. That was the mood in the late ’60s and early ’70s, that you were doing the right thing, serving your country, protecting your family.”

The Army Ranger trained to do reconnaissance missions.

“He jumped out of helicopters at night into jungles to see where the enemy was, what supplies they had and what they would be up against,” Cancelosa said.

Holupko was 2 1/2 years younger than Cancelosa. Brother Corey, who recently passed away, was 10 years younger than Holupko. Corey had two sons and he named one of them Lon after his big brother. While he was overseas, their parents, Charles and Virginia Holupko, moved from Detroit to Sterling Heights. Cancelosa and Holupko always got along.

“I was like the moody teenage girl and he was always giggling,” said Cancelosa, of Macomb Township.

Cancelosa, who had gotten married and had a baby girl named Jill, always remembers the day Holupko left for the service. He carried his niece through the airport until it was time to say goodbye.

“I can still picture it,” Cancelosa said. “He adored her. It was just a way of being close.”

In Vietnam, Holupko was on a reconnaissance mission when his troop was spotted and a firefight ensued. He was killed in action. Cancelosa’s heart sank when she learned of her brother’s fate.

“It’s something you never recover from. Two officers came to the door. My mom and dad didn’t even have to hear the words. They knew why they were there. They gave us the news,” Cancelosa said. “You knew he was in danger. You knew he was in harm’s way, but you didn’t think it’s going to happen. You feel bad for him. He was cheated on life. I feel bad for my parents to lose a child. It was horrible, just horrible.”

The two officers stayed with the family during the three-day funeral, which included a viewing and 21-gun salute. The Gold Star Purple Heart recipient was laid to rest at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Detroit.

“The task of getting his remains back was not easy,” Cancelosa said. “The American Red Cross helped me get his remains back.”

He served 18 months of a two-year stint. Cancelosa kept the letters he wrote from overseas to their parents and to her. In the letters, he never talked about his missions, just about how much he missed his family.

Mom and Dad dealt with their grief differently.

“My dad went to the cemetery every week and took a rose. He never talked about my brother,” Cancelosa said. “My mom never went to the cemetery, but she talked about him all the time.”

Cancelosa believes her brother would have gone into drafting once he got out of the military. She still carries a photo of him in her wallet and has run into two friends of his by chance. Once at Walgreens in Estero, Florida, she spotted a man standing in line wearing a Vietnam veteran’s hat. She pulled out the picture. While studying it, the man asked, “Did he go to Osborn High?” It turned out he knew Holupko “mostly from football and the old neighborhood with a few friends in common.”

Another time, Cancelosa, son Jeff and his three daughters visited the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall in Clinton Township. When she asked a volunteer to help locate her brother’s name, he asked if she was Charlene. According to Cancelosa, the two guys were paperboys and played football together as kids.