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 October 12, 1969 -
Quang, South Vietnam In Memory of Lance Corporal Richard Raymond Stolarun Let us not forget Lance Corporal Richard Raymond Stolarun, casualty of the Vietnam War. As a member of the Marine Corps, LCPL Stolarun served our country until October 12th, 1969 in Quang, South Vietnam. He was 19 years old and was not married. Richard died from an undetermined explosion. His body was recovered. Richard was born on July 22nd, 1950 in New Britain, Connecticut. LCPL Stolarun is on panel 17W, line 071 of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. He served our country for one year. "All these places have their moments of lovers and friends I still can recall .... Some are dead and some are living
CB card from the archives of Cliff Cayer
To post a rememberance of Richie on the Vietnam Veteran's Virtual Wall, click here
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Charles F. Searle
I met Rich in 7th grade at Washington Jr High, great kid, great fun. Went into the Marines on the buddy plan, but got split up after training. I was in the bush when Rich got killed - I found about a week later. He was in a CAP unit, a team of about ten marines and a navy corpsman, Medic, assigned to a village to help protect, and such. Anyway they got overran, Richie got hit a few times, and died from his wounds. Tommy Skoronski was over there also at the time, not far from there and he told me he thought that he saw that battle. I got in touch with one of his pals from his outfit, and he sent me his journal about what happened. Very heavy stuff. I named my oldest boy after him. Semper Fi, bro. ChuckCliff Cayer
Recently one of our classmates, Claire Calcinari Reed, sent Pat a clipping from the "In Memoriam" section of the New Britain Herald from a couple of weeks ago. The clipping was a photo of one of our classmates, Richie Stolarun.It was then that I realized that October 12th, 2009, was the 40th anniversary of Richie's death. The above picture and tribute was sent to the Herald by Richie's brother, Alan, and his 91year old father. It was printed in the Herald that day.
After some trepidation, I decided to call Alan, who lives in the same house that Richie grew up in. I introduced myself as part of Richie's graduating class and one of his good friends (we were both into CB radio at the time). I asked if he could send me a digital copy of Richie's picture for our sites. Alan was kind enough to do so which enabled me to replace the black and white photo of Richie as seen in the Herald with this colored copy. He also has given us permission to use the photo on our site.
I ask that you all please take a few moments and reflect on our freedom. That freedom is a direct result of the brave men and women who serve or have served our country in the armed forces, and of those who paid the ultimate price. Richie was the only one of our class who paid that price -please remember him.
Cliff Cayer, October 2009