2012 - Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School

Do You Remember Where You Wereon December 22, 1965?Elmo “Joe” Roach ‘56living the faithOn December 22, 1965, I was inColumbus, transitioning froman MA to my PhD in RussianHistory at Ohio State. Earlier, I had servedin a US Marine Corps Air Wing, doingweather briefings for the pilots of MarineFighter Squadron (VMA-451). So I got toknow a good deal about Navy-Marine aviators,the most skilled flyers on the planet.What I did not know is that our 1956 classmate,LT John D. Prudhomme, had becomea Navy pilot. John went to Ohio Statefor a year directly from high school. He wasthen appointed to the U.S. Naval Academythe next year. He graduated with his shipmatesin 1961, and immediately entered thenaval aviation program.In December 1965, John was the pilot ofan A4 Skyhawk of Navy Attack Squadron(VA-76), USS Enterprise. The nuclear poweredcarrier arrived on Yankee Station onDecember 2, 1965, a point in the Gulf ofTonkin off the coast of Vietnam, to launchair operations. The ship was the largestwarship in the world at that time.On December 22, Enterprise teamed withtwo other carriers in one of the war’s biggestair strikes with 100 aircraft hitting thethermal power plant at Uong Bi, located15 miles north-northeast of the port city ofHaiphong. Our classmate John was on thatmission, flying swiftly into harm’s way. Theair defenses for Haiphong and Hanoi werethe most dangerous in the history of militaryaviation.Six Americans were shot down that day,including John. His A4 was hit by enemyfire and crashed, coordinates: 210157N1064657E. John was killed in the crash atage 28. They listed him among the MissingIn Action because John’s remains were nev-er recovered. Figuratively, if not literally,John’s final resting place is the VietnamWar Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.A few years ago I made my first visit tothe Wall. I was looking for former MarineCorps shipmates, and I found them. Forsome inexplicable reason, a recollectionpopped into my head that John had talkedabout wanting to become a pilot whenwe were at Chaminade. “Maybe I ought tocheck the alpha list of those on the Wall,” Ithought to myself. There he was, Panel 04E,Line 035. It took my breath away.What really saddens me is that I didn’t know— most of the class of 1956 never knew —that John made the supreme sacrifice for hiscountry nine years after we graduated.Look at our yearbook: see his beamingsmile, handsome and alert. Surely wecan say that John was one of our best andbrightest. I try now belatedly to repay himby offering these words in his honor andmemory. With all the gratitude I can summon,I salute you John. This is for you. I encourageall Chaminade Julienne graduatesto visit him the next time they are in D.C. VAbout the AuthorElmo “Joe” Roach ‘56 receivedhis BA from the University ofDayton and is a recipient ofthe University Special AchievementAward. He earned hisMA and PhD in Russian Historyat Ohio State University, andserved as a professor at BradleyUniversity, where he wasalso director of InternationalPrograms.He and his wife, Jean, are retiredand live in a fishing cottagein northern Wisconsin.They enjoy traveling and winterin Las Cruces, N. M.VISION 33