50 YEARS AFTER IWO JIMA, CEREMONY HONORS HERO FROM A DIFFERENT WAR

The sun shone on the World War II and Vietnam veterans, their families and other proud Americans during a ceremony Sunday at Cape Rock Park.

First, the Marines and Navy seamen who fought at Iwo Jima were honored for their service.

As Lt. Cmdr. Donald Taylor of the Navy Reserve slowly read the names of the Cape Girardeau men killed in that battle 50 years ago, as a sailor rang a bell for each name.

He rang it once more for all the 6,821 Americans killed on the Sulfur Island.

But American Legion leaders and others who planned the event felt it was an appropriate time to remember another war, Vietnam, and a special Marine who died fighting it.

His name was Sgt. Ervin J. Emrick Jr., and he died May 11, 1969, in a rice field thousands of miles from his Cape Girardeau home. He was 29.

Paul Ebaugh Jr. spoke about his friend to the 150 who gathered Sunday. The two Marines met when Ebaugh was a first lieutenant. Ebaugh first saw Emrick at a firebase in Vietnam, and the sergeant quickly told him to take the bars off his collar if he wanted to stay alive.

It was the first of many pieces of advice Emrick gave Ebaugh.

They soon learned they were both from Cape Girardeau and shared common friends, experiences and hang-outs. Emrick tried to give Ebaugh an appreciation for country music, but it didn't work. The two became close friends.

They grew even closer after Emrick saved Ebaugh's life.

While on a mission, the lieutenant sat on the ground and leaned back on his arm. It fell through the soil and right next to a trip wire leading to a grenade. The rest of the platoon fled, but Emrick helped Ebaugh get his arm out without injury.

"Ervin Emrick was a warrior, a professional Marine," Ebaugh said. "He was one of those guys you wanted to be around when things got tough. He never questioned why we were over there."

It was Emrick's bravery and sense of duty that cost him his life. His company was conducting a search-and-destroy operation north of the An Hoa Combat Base and came under heavy fire.

Part of the group was pinned down, but Emrick rushed in and guided his fellow Marines to relative safety.

He saw two wounded men still in dangerous positions, so he went back to pull one to a covered location. When he went for the second one, he was killed by sniper fire.

"A couple days after his death, I knew it couldn't go unrecognized in his hometown," Ebaugh said. "I wrote a letter, and parts were reprinted on the front page of the Southeast Missourian."

Ebaugh finished his speech Sunday with the Marine motto.

"Semper fidelis, Sgt. Emrick. Semper fidelis," he said. The phrase is Latin for "always faithful."

Emrick received the Silver Star Citation from President Richard Nixon posthumously for his act of bravery. At Sunday's ceremony, his mother, Thelma Sides, unveiled a plaque honoring Emrick.

Sides remembered her son as a vibrant boy, full of life, who loved Boy Scouting, baseball and teasing the family dog.

"I don't blame the service for what happened," she said. "He was a serviceman since he was a little boy."

Her brother, Lester Harris, said his nephew had been honorably discharged from the Marines for rheumatic fever, but he signed up again after returning to the United States. He used an aunt's address to deceive recruiters.

Emrick was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam when he was killed.