Alpha-Jazz . . .

When I think about LaSalette, the person I think about most often is a guy named Al Jasnocha.  Alfred L. Jasnocha, Jr.  He was the youngest of thirteen children and the only boy.  This is him in high school.

He's the shorter guy in the middle, in the plaid shirt.  He was a year ahead of me in Cheshire, and he left from Altamont about a month or so before I did. 

He was a superb athlete.  He played baseball and basketball and was outstanding at both.  I remember being sick in the infirmary in my freshman year, and he was in the next bed.  There was a basketball game that night, and Fr. Caffry told him early in the afternoon that if his temperature was normal at dinner time, he could play.  His temperature came out at exactly 98.6 . . . he did it with an ice cube and a flashlight, as Fr. Caffry was out of the room during the three minutes . . .  Al played, we won, and he was back in the infirmary after the game with a temp of 102.  There was a little girl, someone else's sister, who heard some people call him Al, and some call him Jazz.  She named him "Alpha-Jazz" and it kind of stuck, in my head at least. 

When he decided to leave from Altamont, it seems no one thought it was a good idea.  They tried to talk him into staying.  Asked him to take some time to think about it, to make sure it was the right decision.  But he left anyway, and the place was devastated.  He was the kind of guy that if you couldn't be him, you wanted to be like him, and if you couldn't be like him, you'd settle for being around him.  When I left, I'm not sure anyone even noticed.  But when he left, he left a huge hole in our lives where he used to be . . .

And he joined the marines.  And then, on May 15, 1968,  he got killed in Vietnam.

This information is from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial website:

Alfred L Jasnocha Jr

PFC - E2 - Marine Corps - Regular

Length of service 0 years

His tour began on Mar 18, 1968

Casualty was on May 15, 1968

In Quang Tri, South Vietnam

Hostile, Ground Casualty

Artillery, Rocket or Mortar

Body was recovered

Panel 60E - Line 24

In 1984, when I was thirty-six, I was in Washington DC for my brother's graduation from Catholic University.  I went to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, and I found Panel 60E, Line 24.  I saw Jazz's name etched into the marble wall. 

I was struck by the knowledge that, compared to him, I had already lived two lifetimes.  Now I'm pushing four.

Sometimes, I wonder what might have been . . .

Here is a link to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial .  And here's a photo from that website . . .

There are 58,272 names listed on this wall, as of 2011.  Approximately 1200 are still listed as missing in action.  At least 25,000 of those killed were, like Jazz, 20 years old, or younger.  The worst month of the war for casualties was May, 1968 when 2,415 were killed.  Jazz was one of them.

 

Sometimes, I wonder what might have been . . .