By Raymundo Frasquillo
MORENCI – Nine Morenci 1960s grads, eight from the Class of 1966 and one from 1964, became United States Marines on July 4, 1966, through the buddy system.
An oath of allegiance was taken. They “solemnly swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic; bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and to obey orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers over them, according to the regulations and the code of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God).”
It is Title 10, U.S. Code 502, Act of 5 May 1960, replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 Oct 1962.
They never saw themselves as doing anything special, just doing their duty as all males born in the United States have a six-year military obligation to complete.
The Morenci Nine were shipped off to Southeast Asia to do their part in an undeclared war. Six lost their lives there, and three returned. Robert Dale Draper, Stanley King, Alfred Van Whitmer, Larry West, Robert Moncayo, and Clive Garcia, Jr. died in Vietnam while Mike Cranford, Leroy Cisneros, and Joe Sorrelman came back ‘to the world.’
Current Arizona U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego visited on Aug. 12 to honor their sacrifice.
Prior to the indoor presentation, Anthony Chavarria Ortega, son of his late father Ismael Andazola Ortega (Aug. 16, 1930 – April 25, 2020), gave a brief explanation in front of the Morenci Nine Memorial leading to the high school entrance. The 89-year-old decorated Korean War veteran served with the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. The Morenci Class of 1950 grad was honorably discharged after earning the Korean Service Medal with two bronze service stars, the United Nations Service Medal, and the Combat Infantry Badge.
Anthony Ortega, a Clifton Class of 1977 grad, remembered his father placing a wreath at the foot of the memorial to both honor their sacrifice and ensure it would not be forgotten twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Along with his wife Terri, Ortega placed a wreath for the Morenci Nine at the foot of their memorial.
On July 4, 1998, a memorial to the Morenci Nine’s sacrifice was dedicated at the entrance to the Morenci Nine’s alma mater, now miles away in a different physical location. Clifton Class of 1982 grad and Major Ruben John Garza represented the Corps during the event.
Teachers, students, and community members gathered in the high school for the Fine Arts and Scholarship Fundraising Night on April 12, 2012. An indoor Morenci Nine Memorial, featuring pencil portraits of the Nine by senior Ashley Cronister, rubbings from the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall, along with a reproduced 1970 Time magazine article, were displayed for all who knew not of the story.
The included lines are:
“We pledge to remember all veterans, including the Morenci Nine
Your unquestioning patriotism, of which you represented
We dedicate this memorial to the nine Marines who once walked our halls
Tears of pride well in our eyes as we honor you.”
The display was initially in the high school lobby but was moved this year. “We thought more people would see it if it were in the library,” school superintendent Jennifer Morales said, “during school board meetings or other functions held there.”
“There are only four times in my life I remember ever seeing him (Vern Freidli) cry. One of them was when he read the transcript of the book on the Morenci Nine,” middle son Ted (AHS Class of 1986) said during a celebration of life on Aug. 5, 2017, for departed Tucson Amphitheater football coach Vern Friedi (Sept. 11, 1936 – July 21, 2017. It was authored by A.S.U. History and Political Science Professor Kyle Longley, published in 2013.
Friedli coached Morenci in baseball and football. Morenci won 61 percent of its contests for both sports, of 170 baseball games during nine seasons (104-66 from 1966-74) and of 69 football games during seven seasons (42-26-1 from 1967-73).
Gallego left a triangularly folded and framed national flag flown over the nation’s capital before departing Morenci. He was gifted a copy of A.S.U. professor Kyle Longley’s ‘The Morenci Marines.’
