Smith: Here and there, clusters of hearts the color of purple

All of those hearts on display in a banquet space at The Villa on Friday night belonged to a special class of Americans.

Purple Heart medals were worn to the gathering at the hallowed Santa Rosa dinner-and-drink house by military veterans who were injured in combat. Do you know why members of the North Coast’s Chapter 78 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart chose that Feb. 22 to meet?

That’s the day George Washington was born, in 1732. And it was Gen. Washington who created perhaps the world’s first honor for common soldiers who’d served with extraordinary gallantry and fidelity - the Badge of Military Merit.

It morphed into the Purple Heart, a medal presented to members of the armed services killed or wounded in action.

About 30 Purple Heart recipients, most but not all of them Vietnam veterans, met Friday evening for an annual dinner. Affable chatter halted for a presentation.

Chapter 78 bestowed its first-ever Community Service Award on an Air Force veteran who doesn’t have a Purple Heart, but certainly has a heart.

Joe Cholewa of Santa Rosa was honored because he’s constantly doing something for local vets, youth, wildfire survivors and others in need.

A member of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 223, Cholewa is a godsend for fellow veterans needing food or shelter or other basics of life. He and a behind-the-scenes squad of vets calling themselves The Usual Suspects keep busy in service to others.

Cholewa shies from attention, but he beamed upon being surprised at the Villa and applauded by a whole roomful of Purple Heart recipients.

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THAT SAME DAY, Friday, Washington’s birthday, Walt Risse embraced and showed off Sonoma County to a war buddy he last saw in 1967.

Now 74 and a retired criminal defense attorney, Risse was in ‘66 a young Leatherneck from New Jersey fighting and trying to stay alive in Vietnam. He and Tom Slattery of Ohio meshed as members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.

“We were both wounded on June 15, 1967, and hospitalized in Chu Lai,” recalled Risse, who lives in Santa Rosa. He said they both were treated following that ambush and returned to the field.

Not long afterward, amid a firefight with Viet Cong, both Risse and Slattery were wounded again. The last time they saw each other was before their evacuation from Da Nang and their return to the states.

Both were awarded two Purple Hearts.

“We kept in touch occasionally over the years,” Risse said. Slattery, now 72, worked for AT&T in the Cleveland area.

Just last week, Slattery texted Risse that he was in Southern California and would like to come north for a visit. The long-ago Marines met in Sebastopol on Friday. They caught up and reminisced while driving to the coast and lunching at The Tides and hours later having dinner at Ca’Bianca.

Slattery came quickly to understand why Risse had left West Orange, New Jersey, for Sonoma County. The two-time Purple Heart recipients talked about their families and the war and the Marines they knew whose names are engraved on the Vietnam Wall.

They laughed at the suggestion of the server at Ca’Bianca that maybe they’ll get together again in another 52 years.

You can reach Staff Columnist Chris Smith at chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.