Ciara Encinas joined the ABC 10News team in December 2021 as a multimedia journalist.
CORONADO, Calif. — The Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument on Naval Amphibious Base Coronado honors the sailors and coast guardsmen who didn’t make it home from Vietnam. It’s now run by one very special Vietnam veteran who makes it his mission to keep their memories alive.“Everyday that I’m here, I think about the people on the wall and not just the people on the wall or the people that I miss, but their families,” said Chuck Chaldekas.
“Everything I did was very, very interesting, from blowing channels in the Philippines and in Korea to operating in the jungles of Vietnam,” he said. One of the most exciting was when he was a 22-year-old third-class petty officer…training former Kietkong fighters. “I was running combat missions with 35 former Vietkong who had traded over to the government side. A couple of those guys were on the edge. You didnt really know whose side they were really on… up to that time I was on a with Echo SEAL Team 1," he said.“John is from Lake City, Pennsylvania, and he and two others from my first platoon were killed in our first deployment," he said.“People got tired of giving up their treasure in men and money, so support for the war went away.
But today, his work honors the veterans who served in the jungles of Vietnam, even making him emotional at times.Chuck will be taking flight with Honor Flight San Diego on the first-ever all-SEAL Honor Flight at the end of April.
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