TARENTUM, Pa. \u2014 This is a story about how friends become family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some, June 1967 was the start of the Summer of Love, a time when more than 100,000 gathered in San Francisco\u2019s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to follow Timothy Leary\u2019s directions and \u201cturn on, tune in, drop out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For others, that June came to be known as the start of the \u201clong hot summer,\u201d when 159 riots centered around the civil rights movement broke out across the country, landing over 11,000 people in jail and resulting in the deaths of over 75 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the nearly 3.4 million military men and women on active duty, the summer of 1967 was and could be only one thing: the height of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for five young men from the Alle-Kiski Valley, that summer was the start of a lifelong, unbreakable bond of friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One for all, all for one<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dave Hertz was 18, and it was the summer after high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was walking down Corbet Street in Tarentum on an otherwise normal day. Four of his friends drove by on their way to New Kensington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey saw me and said, \u2018Hey, you want to go with us?\u2019 I asked where they were going and they said, \u2018We\u2019re going to join the Marine Corps.\u2019 I got in the car and went with them,\u201d Hertz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that car were two cousins, Jerry and Len Valenti, now 68 and 67, respectively, Larry Struhar, 67, and Ted Slavin, 69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerry Valenti, had wanted to join the service a year earlier when he graduated from Har-Brack High School in 1966. But his cousin Len was only 16 so he couldn\u2019t sign up with him. He waited for one more year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMe and him were going, regardless,\u201d Jerry Valenti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the time came they picked up Struhar, who had convinced Slavin to come along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once Hertz jumped in the car, the five were off to the recruiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even think I thought about it,\u201d Hertz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All five just wanted one thing: to fight for their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The five spent the rest of the summer waiting for that moment, on Aug. 22, when they were to report for duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe recruiter, he took us to the airport and we were gone,\u201d Jerry Valenti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honor, courage, commitment<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of training at Parris Island in South Carolina, the five ended up going through Chicago and then to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joined with 67 other would-be Marines, the five were split into squads and eventually into job specialties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerry Valenti said he was a \u201cgrunt,\u201d while Len Valenti learned tanks. Struhar and Slavin were radio operators before Slavin learned reconnaissance. Hertz was a radar man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They didn\u2019t know it, but the Tet Offensive, one of the largest North Vietnamese offensives of the war, was to begin in late January 1968 \u2014 just as they finished their training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Valenti cousins, Struhar and Slavin would soon find out firsthand after they were ordered to deploy for 13 months as part of the 3rd Marine Division. Hertz was never assigned to duty in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerry Valenti volunteered to serve an additional tour after his first 13-month tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struhar was injured by shrapnel, Slavin shot in the arm; both were awarded Purple Hearts for their injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was laying down with the bullets flying all around and one caught my arm,\u201d Slavin said as-a-matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struhar\u2019s explanation of his war wounds was that, \u201csome little (expletive) threw a hand grenade at me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They would run into each other occasionally and under unusual circumstances as the war carried on, only to part again, often with tears in their eyes. They each served one enlistment and each was made a sergeant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But from that point on, their lives went in five relatively different directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Semper Fidelis: \u2018Always faithful\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Len Valenti would return to the Alle-Kiski Valley and teach special education at Freeport High School for 35 years; his cousin Jerry worked the mills at Allegheny Ludlum for 33 years and then retired in Harrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struhar was a mail carrier, also retiring in Harrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slavin worked his way up to be a general manager of a small manufacturing firm and is now retired in Venice, Fla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hertz moved to Winter Garden, Fla., and became an engineer with a telephone company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They all raised families, some married and divorced, and, according to Len Valenti, were \u201csemi-normal \u2014 except we were all dumb enough to join the Marine Corps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The five men wouldn\u2019t see each much until 50 years later, when the Tarentum High Class of 1967 held its 50th reunion. Several days later, on the anniversary of the day they all left home together came, they were finally reunited on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the decades that have passed, all five of men agreed that they were not friends, but family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to tell you: we were here Tuesday and we were a little inebriated, and the true feeling of all of us came out: I love these guys. I mean, I love them to death. We all had tears in our eyes the other day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all made it back alive,\u201d Struhar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, 47,378 American soldiers died in combat in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another 10,800 troops died \u201cnon-hostile\u201d deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe odds were against us \u2014 we shouldn\u2019t have made it back. It feels like we\u2019ve all been together forever. I don\u2019t think any of us ever left each other in 50 years in our minds,\u201d Len Valenti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerry Valenti said the bond the five of them formed is \u201cunique to the Marine Corps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hertz said, that despite not seeing the men for most of 50 years, they were all, always, just a phone call away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI tell you what: if anyone of these guys would have called me in the last 50 years, literally for anything, I would have stopped what I was doing and would have gone to anyone of these guys,\u201d Hertz said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t say that about my brother, or my sister, but these guys, I still have their backs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if they would hold another reunion soon, the five agreed not to wait another 50 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For five young men from the Alle-Kiski Valley, Pa., the summer of 1967 was the start of a lifelong, unbreakable bond of friendship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,14,26,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[6491],"class_list":["post-57238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-honor","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"354DXEH5KZHGVA6EVOHRAF7BZM","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2017\/09\/09\/pennsylvania-marines-reunite-after-50-years\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n