Memorial Park In Wayne Honors Lance Corporal Ralph Valt: A Tribute to a Fallen Marine

WAYNE, NJ – In Wayne Township, out behind the Village Inn on Runnymeade Drive, there is a narrow park that follows the Preakness Brook south for a bit and is connected to one street – Hamilton Avenue. It holds a newly renovated playground, a basketball court and a soccer field. It’s a popular place on soccer weekends, with local streets sometimes almost blocked by parked cars down the length of each side road.

This is Lance Corporal Ralph Valt Memorial Park, dedicated to Ralph Valt, a Wayne High School cross-country runner who enlisted in the Marines a month before he graduated in 1965, then volunteered to serve in Vietnam. According to a 1966 newspaper article, his mother said that he had wanted to enlist in the Marines since he was a sophomore in high school, and that his father had said that he had died "where he wanted to be."

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Ralph Valt was six months in country before he was killed on a supply run, on the way to get new boots. That was December 22, 1966. His parents were informed two days later, on Christmas Eve.

From those who knew him, Valt was a "happy-go-lucky," fun guy who always had a smile on his face. His niece, Stephanie Valt told TAPinto that her dad (Kenny) and her Uncle Charlie told her that she’s “a clone” of her Uncle Ralph. She’s into cars and motorcycles, then learned that Uncle Ralph had been too. “I always wondered where I got it from,” she said, laughing.

“He was a comic; he was always doing stupid stuff to make my grandparents yell at him,” she said – all just to make his brothers laugh. “From what my dad told me, he used to drive my grandparents crazy. Like the one time he tried jumping off a roof like Mary Poppins with an umbrella.”

Stephanie admits that she does the same kind of “stupid things” that he did. But it is her distinctive “Valt” look that had Ralph’s former fiancé Pat Johnston pick her out in a crowded bar nearly 40 years after his death. They talked, they cried and Stephanie’s strong connection to the uncle she had never met, grew.

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“She described him to me as ‘funny’ and ‘sweet,’ an ‘amazing guy,’” Stephanie said. “He treated her with respect. And she even said the smile that he always had just always made her smile, too.”

Ralph Valt enlisted in the Marines with his best friend and Wayne Valley classmate, Fred Arnold - the two were put in the same platoon in Vietnam. At some point, Valt had his girlfriend Pat’s name tattooed on his left arm. This was how his superior would later identify him when the truck he was riding in exploded after driving over a hidden mine.

Corporal Ray Kowalewski, a Pittsburgh native, was Ralph’s immediate supervisor in the platoon, where they both worked communications as “Radio Men.” In an interview with TAPinto, Kowalewski confirmed that Valt hadn’t changed after boot camp and a few months in Vietnam.

“He was happy-go-lucky, always had a smile on his face,” he said. “I think that everyone who knew him liked him.”

Kowalewski has kept up with his fellow platoon members, and has a collection of newspaper articles, stories and notes that have accumulated over the years. One old email to a friend told the story of Valt’s death.

“It was his boots,” said Kowaleski. “The soles had become separated, and they were slapping every time he walked.”

So, the young man from Wayne needed new ones and asked to go on the ammo run that morning with the convoy which was headed to the supply base. According to Kowaleski, there Valt could get new boots, or fatigues or whatever he wanted.

“So, when he asked, I said, ‘Sure,’” said Kowalewski, and he watched Valt grab his gear and weapon and run down to the convoy, “with his boots flapping in the wind.”

"That's the last time I saw Pee-Wee alive," he had written in the email.

Kowalewski covered Valt’s duty on the switchboard that day and heard the call come in of the convoy’s ambush. Valt was in the last truck of the convoy, riding shotgun, with a young driver, who was just eight days in country. They were in an old truck with bad breaks, according to Kowalewski, and were told to stay at the rear of the convoy and to keep back.

As the rest of the eight-or-so trucks in the convoy drove on, Valt’s truck was soon left behind.

In the middle of the road was a “patch of grass” that the experienced convoy drivers knew to drive around. But the inexperienced driver, who was too far behind to watch the rest of the trucks maneuver around the patch, rode over it, not knowing there was a mine “or some kind of IED” hidden underneath.

“It blew the truck up,” said Kowalewski. “It totally destroyed it, and blew them both out of the truck entirely, killing Ralph instantly."

That’s when the North Vietnamese opened fire on the convoy. According to Kowalewski, 22 marines were killed that day, including one from Pequannock. But the driver of Valt’s truck lived, despite numerous injuries.

“They said he had a broken back; he was badly bruised and broken,” said the Corporal. “I assumed he had earned a ticket home, but later, just in recent years, I learned that he stayed in Vietnam. I think he went to the hospital ship and got rehabilitated and stayed. I don't know where. I never saw him again. I didn't even know his name and that’s because I was quite mad at him for killing my friend.”

Though he pulled back on that harsh statement, saying, “It wasn’t done on purpose…just an unfortunate accident.”

As his superior, Kowalewski had to ID Valt’s body, which was “badly disfigured.”

“But I knew he had his girlfriend’s name tattooed on his arm, so I said, ‘Show me his arm.’ And, sure enough, the tattoo was there.”

Kowalewski was then forced to go through Valt’s belongings and was instructed to read every letter, and even had to listen to recorded messages that Valt and his family sent back and forth to each other on tape. He had to send everything back to Valt’s family but needed to make sure that nothing contained military secrets.

It was a very sad exercise for the young man, which – that, and so much more that happened in Vietnam - affects him to this day.

“I was in Vietnam probably another six months after that; I got home that next June,” he said. “Probably my biggest regret was I didn't contact Ralph's parents. I should have.”

He was asked what he would have said to them.

“That's why I didn't call,” he said. “I don't know what I would have said to them. I think I was hurting just as badly as they were.”

It shows you a bit of how likable Ralph Valt must have been, and reflects the shame that his life was cut so short.

His niece, Stephanie Valt told TAPinto that she was at Lance Corporal Ralph Valt Memorial Park somewhat recently, and said she comes to visit every couple of months.

What does it mean to her to have the park dedicated to her uncle?

“It's an honor,” she said. “And it's definitely heartfelt, because it shows me that they still remember my uncle even years after his death and that he’s being honored for serving his country.”

She said the park is “beautiful” and that when there, she often tears up. “I sometimes feel like he’s there with me.” Stephanie never met her uncle, but the connection for her is strong and she finds peace when she visits with him at his park in Wayne Township.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net