Marseilles streets to be dedicated in honor of fallen Vietnam veterans

New signs line U.S. 6 on Marseilles’ eastern and western sides depicting the names of two fallen Vietnam veterans, with a third planned along Main Street.

These veterans are Specialist Norman Treest, whose name is on a sign one block west of Main Street along U.S. 6, Staff Sgt. Michael Vangelisti, whose name is on the block opposite heading east and Staff Sgt.Jon Sapp, whose name will be on Main Street.

Treest was the first of the three Marseilles men to die in Vietnam, according to research from Marseilles resident Henry Roe. Treest, a medic, ran to the aid of other soldiers while under fire and tend their wounds as best as he could.

He died in July of 1967 when one of the men in his squad tripped over a hidden wire, triggering an explosive that injured him in the field. Treest died of fragmentation wounds at the field hospital. He was awarded with the Combat Medics Badge and a Purple heart posthumously.

Sapp died on April 19, 1970, when he led his squad off of a combat helicopter into a North Vietnamese trap, suffering from multiple wounds due to the rifle, machine gun and mortar rounds fired at his squad.

It was another nine days before Marseilles lost another life, Vangelisti. Vangelisti served as a gunner on a shadow gun ship in the Air Force. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Mario, who Roe said begged him not to enlist out of fear he wouldn’t return. Mario served in World War II.

“The plane called the flying boxcar began its lumbering roll down the runway at Tan Son Nhut Airbase,” Roe wrote. “It took the entire runway to get a shadow gunship in the air. Any problems after rotation would happen after the end of the runway.”

Roe wrote the gunship’s left engine, a new engine meant to replace a faulty one that had recently lost power, locked up. The gun ship crashed into a rice paddy and burst into flames. Vangelisti died in the accident.

David Raikes, the retired Business Manager from Laborers Local 393, said commemorating these veterans is a project he’s had years in the making that got delayed by COVID-19 and one that was put forth with Larry Shehorn in mind.

Shehorn was Raikes’ Little League coach and a Vietnam veteran, and the kind of person sure to volunteer for every little thing in Marseilles. Shehorn died in 2004.

“He was kind of like my idol,” Raikes said. “Someone I looked up to and respected my whole life from when I first met him.”

Raikes said Shehorn was involved in so many community and veterans events, and he always stepped up for veterans when his help was needed doing taks, such as taking them to the VA clinic or helping them receive their benefits.

“In our discussions, everything reverted back to these kids,” Raikes said. “He felt a connection with them, of course because he served in Vietnam but also because he knew their families and the kids themselves.”

Raikes said the Vangelistis went to United Methodist Church with them and then the Treest and Sapp families were from Marseilles, as well. It’s a town small enough where everyone knew each other.

“Larry always wanted to do something to honor these three guys,” Raikes said. “He wanted something like the Veterans Memorial but at the time, we didn’t have anything for the Vietnam War or especially the three Marseilles kids that lost their lives. That was his goal.”

Raikes said he immediately thought of Larry years back, though, when the state of Illinois passed a bill that allowed state roads to be commemorated with the name of any soldier that lost their lives in conflict.

“I saw that in the paper that night and I thought of Larry, and I thought this would be perfect,” Raikes said. “I got in touch with Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) and it was something he was 100% for. I went to the Department of Transportation and got the paperwork started and got in touch with the families.”

For Sapp, Raikes worked on the commemoration with the city of Marseilles. He said Mayor Jim Hollenbeck presented it to the City Council and the city jumped on the project.

Treest, Sapp and Vangelisti will be honored in a commemoration on Veteran’s Day.