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Brentwood Press - AntiochPress_07.25.08 - Index

4A | THEPRESS.NET COMMUNITY JULY 25, 2008
Vet’s search pays off in memories
by Rick Lemyre
Staff Writer
A Florida veteran’s search for the
family of a Brentwood brother-in-arms
has ended successfully and rekindled fond
memories of a young life snuffed out more
than 40 years ago in Vietnam.
Robert Sirop, a 100-percent disabled
veteran of two tours in Vietnam, discovered
the name Armando Villa on the Vietnam
Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
while trying to locate another veteran with
the same last name. He made a rubbing
and took pictures of Armando’s name,
and when later research showed Villa had
been a resident of Brentwood, he contacted
the Press to see if current members of
the family were still around. Coincidentally,
Villa and Sirop were both members of
the 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division,
and although the two never met, Sirop felt
compelled to send what he’d gathered to
Villa’s family.
“He was my brother,” Sirop said this
week. “I felt like I owed it to him to fi nd his
family. I think it was ordained by God.”
When an article about Sirop’s search
appeared in the July 4 edition of the Press,
it was spotted by Carol Vasquez, a niece
of 90-year-old Blas Franco of Brentwood.
Franco was also Villa’s uncle, and a few calls
later, Sirop was on a tearful phone call with
Art Villa, Armando’s brother in Texas.
Blas Franco and his niece Elma Gillio talk about Elma’s cousin Armando
Villa in the backyard of Franco’s Brentwood home. Villa was killed in
Vietnam in 1967, and a Florida veteran’s search for Villa’s family ended
successfully at Franco’s last week.
“I was numb when he called,” Villa
said. “It’s been 41 years.”
Villa said that every year when Ysleta
High School in El Paso let out for the summer,
he and Armando would hop aboard
a train and head for Brentwood. They’d
spend the summer working the fi elds, staying
with Franco in the same Bramhall
Street house he still lives in. When summer
ended, the boys would head back to Texas
and another year of school.
But once he graduated, Art said, Armando
decided to stay in Brentwood. He
attended DVC and kept working the farms
for about a year, until it got to be too much.
He then decided to join the Army, and let
the GI Bill pay for his schooling once he
got out.
“The last time I saw him was the
night before he left,” said Art. “We slept
in the same room, and I woke up and saw
he wasn’t there. I found him sitting alone
in the dark in the living room; he said he
couldn’t sleep. He said, ‘I don’t want to
be a hero; I just want to do my job, come
home and go to college.’ I told him he
would be just fi ne.”
But three months into his deployment,
it all came to a sudden end for the 19-yearold
Villa. An entry on the unit’s Web site
was posted in 2000 by Ed “Doc” Gerson,
who was the medic who attended Villa on
July 15, 1967 when their unit came under
severe machine gun and small arms fi re.
Villa, carrying machine gun ammo, and
machine gunner Dan Archer, were killed.
“I did the best I could for Armando,
but his wound was too deep, Gerson wrote.
“He was put on a stretcher and hoisted up
from beneath a triple canopy of mountain
growth into a CH47 helicopter. We heard
later he didn’t survive. God bless him; that
was one of the nicest dudes I ever met.”
Art Villa said his brother was goodhearted,
“the comedian of the family” who
kept those around him in stitches with his
impressions of just about anyone. He was
a good athlete, loved the Red Sox, and had
an interest in art.
“He was a good person,” said Elma
Gillio, a cousin of Armando, who now
helps look after Franco. “Children would
always gather around him. He was very
loving. I can’t imagine him picking up a
gun to kill someone.”
Franco said it was unfortunate that
Photo by Rick Lemyre
Photo courtesy of Blas Franco
ARMANDO VILLA 1948-1967
his nephew never got a chance to see a lot
of the world around him, partly because
he’d grown up on farms.
“I feel sorry he lost his life before he
could see the city,” he said.
Armando Villa was buried July 22,
1967 in the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery
in Texas. A winner of the Bronze Star and
Purple Heart, he was laid to rest with full
military honors.
Gillio said the call from Sirop brought
back memories both painful and enjoyable.
This week family members gathered
at the Franco house to remember “Mando”
once again.
“It (Sirop’s call) brought all good stories
about Mando back,” Gillio said. “It
was good hearing them again.”
She also said she looked forward to
receiving the mementos from Sirop. “It
was very nice of him to reach out and go
to that extent,” she said.
But Sirop looks at his actions not as
something nice, but something that was
his duty. Vietnam veterans had a rough
time of it coming home, he said, which
was particularly inexcusable for those who
were killed. “I simply wanted to see justice
done,” he said.
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