Terence Raymond Roach Jr.

Roach in Khe Sanh in January of 1968.

Not Quite like Lynn's cooking is a reference to his beloved wife.

Daughter Mary Scott O'Connor "I am  an orphan of Vietnam. My father, Lieutenant Terence Raymond Roach, Jr. of the Third Marine Division, was killed on February 8, 1968 at Khe Sanh, during the Tet Offensive. I was born 3 months later, on April 29, 1968. 

I consider Vietnam to be the defining feature of my life. Had it not been for that unjust war, I would have grown up with a father and a happy mother. Had she not been widowed, my childhood would have been very different; I cannot imagine it would have been worse (that's a lie: I can imagine Terry Roach coming home with PTSD and providing me an even MORE fucked up childhood than the one I had -- but I choose NOT to imagine it that way). It ought not surprise anyone that I have an extreme sensitivity to needless war."

Real account from the 1st Battalion 9th Marines

"The men in the northeastern sector, led by platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Terence R. Roach, Jr. Counterattacked down the trench line and became engaged in savage hand-to-hand fighting. While rallying his troops and directing fire from atop an exposed bunker, Lieutenant Roach was mortally wounded."

Lieutenant Terence Raymond Roach  was born on Sep 2, 1942 in Birmingham Michigan. He served in the Marines for six years and was deployed to Vietnam on Dec 9, 1967. While engaging NVA soldiers on Hill 64 a mile and half outside Khe Sanh Combat Base Lieutenant Roach was hit and killed on Feb 8, 1968.

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A photo of the OCS MCS company 2nd platoon during July 1966

Terry is located in the top row middle
Photo is courtesy of Timothy J Politis

"We met in college, on the lawn in front of State Hall at Wayne State University in 1965...he had a big bushy beard, wore a kilt and sang Irish folk songs, quite a contrast to the clean shaven, squared away Marine he became. Folk music was big in the 60's, and I was just beginning to get interested in Irish music. Terry's family is Irish ands Scots descent on both sides. There was a folk group on campus, and I heard him sing Irish songs there before I actually met him. He was a colorful character and loved to ham it up. For some one so bright, he wasn't much of a student though, except in history.

He was an enlisted Marine first, in the reserves, but wanted to become an officer. I wonder if he would have bothered to finish college if it hadn't been his ticket to a commission. And if he hadn't returned to college he never would have met me and I'd be telling a whole different story here! He received his commission as a 2d lieutenant in the spring of 1967, and we were married at St. Mary's of Redford in Detroit on May 13, 1967, the same church where I was baptized and my parents were married. 

I hadn't finished college, but he was Infantry and we knew he'd go to Vietnam, so wanted to be married before he left. From June to November of that year we lived in base housing in Quantico, Virginia, while he attended TBS...The Basic School. I thought he was kidding - the T is really for The??? :-) It was. He graduated from officer training in November and immediately received his orders for WestPac...Vietnam.

He left for Vietnam on November 30, 1967. He served with A Company 1/9, 3rd Marine Division. He was killed in combat February 8, 1968 at Khe Sanh, Vietnam, and received the Bronze Star for valor." - His Wife Lynn

 

Saint Mary's of Redford, where Terry and Lynn were married and also where Terry's Memorial services were held

Above is a postcard of the Marine Barracks in Quantico Va. One of these rooms may have held Lieutenant Roach while in The Basic School

  

                      Terry just before he left in 1967                          

A photo of Roach digging a trench of some sort. His 

          handwriting reads "Everyone Digs", this shows what kind of leader he must have been, even the 2nd Lt. wasn't too important too dig.

Roach in a reoccurring position, he seems to always be in the middle of photos, maybe this showed his attitude to being in the middle of all the action.

"Although we never met personally, I want to thank you Terence Raymond Roach, Jr., for your courageous and valiant service, your years of faithfully contributing, and your most holy sacrifice given to this great country of ours!

Your Spirit is alive--and strong, therefore Sir, you shall never be forgotten, nor has your death been in vain!

Again, thank you Lieutenant Terence R. Roach, Jr., for a job exceptionally well done!

REST IN ETERNAL PEACE MY MARINE FRIEND" - Donald Lytle

The street of Birmingham shortly after Terry graduated from Seaholm

"When I was a sophomore you were a senior in high school, they suspended you from school for wearing a kilt to class. You've been one of my heros ever since." - John Perry

Roach was known to wear a kilt, possibly to show off his Irish heritage.His humor always shined through and could often be shown with a smile on his face.

"A real Marine, high school classmate, friend and a person who lived his beliefs. He didn't have to go (had been in the reserves), and died two months before his daughter was born.
Not forgotten. Semper Fidelis, another Marine" - Terry Charbonneau

From The Book
" VALLEY OF DECISION "

"Roach raced across the top of the hill and tried to organize his men,
providing cover fire for surviving Marines who were wounded or
trapped. Two or three squads of North Vietnamese soldiers were already
in the trenches.....one of these NVA leaped up and shot Roach....."

"Remembering you. Your little girl grew up to be beautiful and talented and good, you'd be so proud of her. She married a man who looks a little like you, and you have a grandson now. His name is Terry. 43 years really isn't very long after all." - Lynn Roach

     Terry's daughter was born three months after his death.

"Happy 233rd Birthday, I'll never forget you and the others of Aplha 1/9 It has been over forty years since you and the others were taken away. Still, I can remember your faces like it was yesterday. I will never let you and the others be forgotten. The pain and sorrow will never leave my heart. I still wish I had been with you that day in February and not in the hospital. May you rest in peace. Semper Fi" - Peter Lopez, who served under Roach

" I ENLISTED IN THE MARINE CORPS RESERVE IN DETROIT MI. I WENT THOUGH ENLISTED BOOK CAMP WITH TERRY AT PARIS ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA. WHAT IMPRESSED ME THE MOST ABOUT TERRY WAS THAT HE HAD WENT THROUGH OCS AND STILL WENT THROUGH PARIS ISLAND AS AN ENLISTED MAN BECAUSE HE TOLD ME HE WANTED TO COMMAND MEN, BUT HE WANTED TO FEEL EXACTLY WHAT THEY WENT THROUGH AS AN ENLISTED MAN. ABOUT 11 OF US FROM DETROIT WENT DOWN THERE ON A BUS AND WERE IN THE SAME PLATOON. YOU GET TO KNOW GUYS AND WE STUCK TOGETHER. I LIKED TERRY, EVEN THOUGH I GOT THE FUN JOB OF CLEANING ALL THE TOILETS EVERY NIGHT, THIS WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT TERRY WAS MY SQUAD LEADER AND EACH GUY FROM DETROIT GOT THAT KIND OF JOB, BECAUSE TERRY FELT IT WOULD GET DOWN RIGHT OR HE WOULD HAVE OUR REAR ENDS. HEARD OF HIS LOST SHORTLY AFTER HE WAS TAKEN FROM US. ALWAYS WONDERED IF HE WAS MARRIED AND NOW I KNOW HE LEFT BEHIND A WIFE AND ALSO A BABY GIRL. BE PROUD YOUR DAD WAS A PROUD MAN AND A KIND AND CONSIDERATE PERSON." - Ralph Vogel

A photo of Parris Island, South Carolina. Terry didn't have to go to enlisted camp but he wanted to experience what it was like. Parris Island is also the setting for the 1st part of the film

 Full Metal Jacket

The Bronze star with "V" device that Roach received for his service during Vietnam

"IN 1968 I WAS A YOUNG 18 YEAR OLD BOY. LT. ROACH WAS ALSO A YOUNG MAN. LIEUTENANT ROACH WAS A LEADER OF MEN. HE WAS VARY STRONG, YET GENTLE. EACH TIME I VISIT WASHINGTON, I VISIT THE WALL AND ALL I KNOW LIVING THERE. THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE WALL IT HURT SO MUCH TO SEE THE NAMES I KNEW. MY FIRST VISIT TO THE WALL MADE VIET NAM AND 1/9 SEEM LIKE YESTERDAY. ONE NIGHT WHILE PINNED DOWN AND I WAS SCARED TO DEATH, LT. ROACH WAS THERE TO LEAD. IN HIS GENTLE WAY AND WITH HIS LEADERSHIP I MADE IT TO MORNING. THERE WERE OTHER MORNINGS, THAT WITHOUT THIS MANS LEADERSHIP I WOULD NOT HAVE SEEN THE DAWN. BECAUSE OF LIEUTENANT ROACH I'M STILL HERE AND ENJOY ALL THE MORNINGS OF EACH DAY. MAY ALL MY FELLOW MARINES WHO LIVE ON THE WALL LIVE FOREVER IN THE HEARTS OF US WHO STILL LOVE AND WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER WHO THEY WERE. REMEMBER " - Peter Lopez

"Terry,I knew you had been killed when I ran across Russ Mazola in the Club at Lejeune in late March of 1968.I read the account in the USMC history and in the book "Seige in the Clouds".You were one hell of a Marine in OCS,the Basic School and in combat.I pick up our Platoon photo and think of you.I went to the moveable wall in "Sherman Mills" Maine last week and spent some time with you and with "Jap Goggles"Rainey.It's been 36 years since that photograph.You still live in my mind."Disease"

-Tim Politis, 

The Platoon photo metioned can be seen above on the page

An account of Roach and his men can be found in Siege In The Clouds

“My index finger traced down a few more line and veer west to find Terry. There's always a sense of anticipation, wondering is he's still living here. There he is: Terrence Raymond Roach Jr. Just as i spotted the name I saw a hand reach out toward me from the dark granite depths of line thirty-eight. It was a odd moment, like they all seem, but I honestly felt 2nd Lieutenant Terry Roach was trying to shake my hand. My index finger trailing left along the cold stone was drawn toward the warmth of that hand. I touched the hand with my finger. It was warm. It had flesh and blood. I immediately realized it wasn’t actually on the wall. Another man was reaching to the wall. Only when my finger touched his hand did I realize that this man ws standing beside and slightly behind me in the drizzling rain. His hang had been reaching for the same name my finger was locating. We were both startled and surprised; I turned to the rain-soaked stranger and heard my voice asking “Did you know Lieutenant Roach?” ‘Terry was my best friend at Wayne State University. He said. “Whenever I come to the wall, I save my last goodbye for him. He was the best! He was my friend.” The soldier I met was Tony Martinaitis, now a Vet Center counselor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “We were going to join the Army together,” said Tony. “But not Terry. He enlisted in the marines. The Marines! Can you imagine? Terry wanted more than anything to be a Jarhead. Oh god, how I miss him.” Tony described the Terry he knew as a happy-go-lucky student who loved wearing kilts to class and singing Irish fight songs in the student union. He described a maverick living life his own way, playing it right and wrong, good and bad, and acted in every matter as it confronted him.  I knew Marine 2^nd Lieutenant Roach in a similar way. I also came to know the man much loved by his widow- Lynn and the father much missed by his daughter Mary Scott- born three months after he was buried. I’ve know the legacy of pain folded into his burial flag. I’ve dealt with his mother’s dry tears and his father’s lonely anguish. I’ve witnessed suffering felt by friends, family, his community and a Corps that loved and cherished the man, the maverick, the Marine. I’ve recognized the loss and felt the grief that accompanied his death. Twenty-seven months after he earned permanent quarters on the WalI learned to share much of that heartache when I married his widow and began fathering the daughter he’d never have the opportunity to meet. Lieutenant Roach and I shared the Marine Corps and shared combat time in Vietnam. Today, Terry brought Tony and me together for a brief shared moment in the rain in a way and at a point in time and space neither of us could have predicted nor prevented.”

-Charles Giesler

"Terry was certainly a remarkable man.  I was in 5th platoon and Terry 4th platoon in O Company.  I did not know him personally but he was close enough in formation and in the seating in the large classroom that I was very much aware of him.  He was one of the legends at TBS.
I have always wanted to walk the ground on Hill 64 and it is on my to-do list." - Jack Wells