Decorated veteran at rest

HEMINGWAY – The community lost a hometown hero last week with the death of James Benjamin (Pete) Rawls. Not too many people realized the extent of his service in Viet Nam, nor the many awards he garnered.

He was enlisted in the Navy, and served two tours in Viet Nam, serving on a number of different ships. He was chief petty officer, and he was an advisor to the South Vietnamese. One of the awards he received was from South Viet Nam and it was written in Vietnamese, which no one of the Americans could read except himself. He was fluent.

His wife Jettie met him at her fourteenth birthday celebration at the Dairy Queen in Johnsonville. It was the day after her birthday. It was love at first sight.

She learned that he was fifteen, but then learned that he would be sixteen the very next day. As often happens, they parted ways and lived separate lives. Fifteen years later they met again, and love rekindled. Both being single, they married three weeks after the second meeting, and had thirty three years to share before his passing. They always celebrated their anniversary and birthdays together on the day between their birthdays, she says.