Angel+Almedina


 * Angel Almedina**

I remember Angel as the little kid from the Bronx, who seemed to always be near the center of things, if not the center. He was with my unit, the 45th MID that went to Vietnam on the USS Gen. John Pope leaving from San Franscisco in October 1967. He was transferred to 1st MI Bn HHC in December 1967 and I last saw him again when I went through Saigon on the way to Taiwan. We hung out in the NCO club and went out to see the city. I remember that everyone had a million questions about Phu Bai and I loaned him $60. Years later, while working on a career in NYC, I saw his picture in the NY Post or the NY Daily News, where he was running a drug rehabilitation clinic. When I first got connected with Don Skinner and he reunited me with Howard Armour... Howard informed me of Angel's premature passing. I will always remember Angel as the guy who always had a quick smile and quicker wit. //Terry Wheeler 45th MID//

Angel Almedina was a great guy. //Don Calvin Det C//

I met Angel in 1985 after the __**"Welcome Home"**__ parade in New York City. Angel was running a Vet Center and let us use his space for a couple of years to form **Chapter 126 of the Vietnam Veterans of America**. I knew Angel Almedina as a veteran - we met in 1985 at a baseball game sponsored by **Manhattan VVA Chapter 126**. Angel operated a **Vet Center** on the upper west side of Manhattan. The Vet Center became a home away from home for veterans who were having difficulty with PTSD, drugs, etc. There was an occasion when Angel & I were asked to be interviewed for a news show. We were interviewed by TV newsman John Johnson when the TV show "__**TOUR OF DUTY**__" came out around 1987. Even then, Angel & I never shared our common experiences in Vietnam. Little did we know that we both served in the same Battalion during the war. Angel in HHC in Saigon & I in Detachment A in Bien Hoa. I learned in 2010 when I saw this web page that Angel & I were in the same unit in Vietnam only about a year apart. When Angel Almedina passed away, we, at Manhattan Chapter 126, named the chapter after Angel. Someone asked me recently (in 2011) - **//"How did the chapter get named after this fella? Was he some sort of war hero?" I answered - "Angel was __our__ hero. When we came home from the war many of us (Vietnam Veterans) were lost souls. He gave us a home at the Vet Center and at that time it was a heroic deed. No one wanted to associate with Vietnam War vets. Later we formed the chapter that he had enabled to happen. VVA was a tremendous support network when the traditional veterans organizations had rejected us."//** - Phil Milio



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