A fresh coat of paint and memory

BARSTOW — Balancing carefully on a relatively new prosthetic leg, “Dirty” Jack Brumit sprayed a clear coat of paint over the plaque in memory of a Barstow soldier on Wednesday.

Brumit, a veteran of the Vietnam war, did not know or serve with Eugene Christiansen but periodically maintains the plaque in Christiansen Plaza near the intersection of Main Street and Third Street dedicated to the young Kennedy High School graduate who died when his helicopter crashed in South Vietnam in 1969. Christiansen was listed a casualty years later, and in 2002, his remains identified and returned to his family.

The other day, when downtown to cash a check at the nearby Union Bank, Brumit noticed the plaque was looking shabby and decided to give it a fresh look for Memorial Day on May 26.

“Nobody else is going to do it,” said Brumit, who lost his leg to an infection in January 2007.

He has cleaned the memorial up before. Brumit worked on the memorial the day before a ceremony held at Christiansen Plaza that coincided with a ceremony held in Oregon by Christiansen’s family when his remains were returned to them in Oregon in June 2002.

Other Barstow soldiers who died in combat are buried at the Mountain View Cemetery on Irwin Road, but not Christiansen. Brumit said that it is especially important to keep up the memorial to Christiansen for those in the Barstow community who knew him. Many of classmates from Kennedy still live in the area, Brumit said, come here to remember him.

“With Gene, it was just like he was hanging out there in space. There was no where for anyone to pay their respects,” Brumit said.

Brumit added a new coat of black paint and then buffed the letters shiny. While working on it, other area veterans stopped by to talk with Brumit. One was Tom Montoya, who was in Vietnam from 1968 t0 1969 as an infantry soldier and went on several missions in helicopters like the one that crashed with Christiansen aboard.

“Man, they really sacrificed,” Montoya said. “Those poor guys, those door gunners and the pilots, they had to keep coming back and landing.”
Those lost in wars will be remembered during a ceremony at the Mountain View Cemetery on May 26 at 11 a.m.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com