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May 23, 2004 New York Times
A Team Called The Currahees
By PAUL LAROCCO
WITH the daylight fading and score tightening
on his team, Tom Behrens cupped his hands over his mouth and emboldened
his batter with words heard daily across Little League baseball fields
in every pocket of the country. ''C'mon Ryan,'' the coach
shouted toward home plate at Ryan Naser, his team holding a slim lead
with the bases loaded and two outs late in the game one recent
Wednesday. ''Be a hero!'' In the narrowest terms of sport,
Ryan, at that moment, wasn't (he made the third out), but as Mr.
Behrens has been telling his team of 13-to 15-year-olds all season, the
jerseys across their backs now have them representing a higher-stakes
definition of hero to some. They are called the Currahees,
(pronounced KER-a-hees) playing with teams sponsored by barber shops
and auto mechanics. And this season this group of Yalesville Little
Leaguers has rather unexpectedly become symbols of closure and
recognition for a small unit of Vietnam veterans. Thirty-six
years after Timothy Keller, a resident of the Yalesville section of
Wallingford and member of the Army's famed 101st Airborne Division
First Brigade (or Currahees) was killed in Vietnam, his old platoon
mates have resurfaced from all ends of the country to sponsor a team in
the little league he once played. An Indian word meaning
''stand alone,'' the Currahees earned their name from the Georgia
mountain of the same name they trained at during World War II. It
wasn't until Vietnam, however, that the paratrooper combat unit became
one of the army's most noted platoons. And in 2004, it became the name
printed across the gold and green uniforms of some Connecticut Little
Leaguers. ''What the veterans talk about is completing the
circle, and this really completes the circle,'' said Mr. Behrens, who
was a little leaguer himself when Mr. Keller had a Yalesville field
dedicated to him in 1969. ''Forget being a positive thing for myself
and the kids, the Vietnam War was such a tough war for those guys, and
they didn't come out of it smelling too good. They never really got
their due.'' At least as far as the league goes, Mr. Behrens
saw two of the surviving members of Mr. Keller's platoon travel from
Kentucky and Massachusetts to finally get their due at Yalesville's
recent opening day ceremonies, where they threw out the first pitch for
the Currahees' game. ''They're feeling confident about
themselves again,'' Mr. Behrens said. ''You can see it in the way they
talk about themselves.'' The ceremonious gesture, however, was
not a long-planned tribute in the tradition of the trees and playing
fields dedicated to Mr. Keller in town. It was through a recent search
for gravesites of the unit's slain soldiers, rather, that a surviving
Currahee made the discovery leading to the sponsorship. ''We
would have done this if it was popular or not,'' said Jerry Gomes, who
fought alongside Mr. Keller in Vietnam and remembers the tight, winged
choker necklace the 19-year-old would wear around his neck. ''But it
was only by chance, and thanks to the Internet, that this happened
now.'' Mr. Gomes, of Oregon, was speaking of stumbling across a
Web site indicating that the Yalesville Little League had named one of
their fields after Mr. Keller shortly after his death in 1968. On the
suggestion of his wife, Mr. Gomes contacted other surviving platoon
mates he keeps in touch with to see if they would be interested in
pooling money to sponsor a team in the league. When the idea was
universally approved and $400 was gathered, Mr. Gomes contacted the
league's president, who coincidentally is a Vietnam veteran named Ray
Gomes. ''At first I was a little hesitant,'' Ray Gomes said.
''We have sponsors like Neil's Donut Shop and businesses of that
nature. But when they came forward, I said, 'You know, this is not a
political statement.' We're supporting something these guys did for us
40 years ago, and they should get something. They were a very proud
unit, and certainly, Vietnam vets weren't treated well by the public
then.'' Jerry Gomes' wife, Kaye, who is in the process of
trying to place flowers on the graves of over 250 Currahee soldiers
killed in Vietnam, went as far as to contact Mr. Keller's surviving
family when the team sponsorship was secured. And while it's ''almost
too hard to take'' for some family to again be reminded of tragedies of
four decades ago, Ms. Gomes said, the Kellers were touched upon hearing
of the new honors being bestowed upon Timothy. ''I was
surprised,'' said Craig Keller, of West Haven, who was 13 when his
older brother was killed walking into an enemy ambush with his
long-range reconnaissance team. ''It's been such a long time. It's
great that they still remember.'' Craig Keller, along with his
mother, Betty Scarpati, attended the opening day ceremonies. Also there
were Paul Flynn and Jim Atwood, both of whom fought closely with Mr.
Keller in Vietnam. Mr. Atwood, who traveled from Kentucky, said that
his most vivid memory of Mr. Keller, like that of Jerry Gomes, was the
winged necklace he would wear everywhere. ''He used to run around with those wings around his neck,'' Mr. Atwood recalled. ''Always, those wings.'' Other
soldiers remember Mr. Keller for his proclivity for his constant
singing of Lulu's hit single, ''To Sir, With Love,'' but Mr. Atwood
also remembers the darker times, like May 8, 1968. ''I remember
the incident,'' he said, referring to Mr. Keller's death in the ambush.
''I was in the next area of operation, and I think our team tried to
send guys over to help them, but they had already broke contact and had
one man down.'' Mr. Atwood called Mr. Keller a ''brother,'' and
said that he hopes to sponsor the Currahee team in the Yalesville
Little League every year. Jerry Gomes added that, if he were a kid,
''I'd love to play for a team with a story behind it.'' Most of
the boys playing for the Currahees, however, as 13-year-old Jason
Yerkes put it, ''didn't really know what the name meant at first.'' ''But since I know now,'' Mr. Yerkes quickly added, ''I'm proud.'' R.J. Bandecchi, 14, had a similar initial reaction. ''I
was just really confused, but then coach gave us a pamphlet'' he said,
before pausing for thought. ''I guess it's cool playing for a platoon,
though. '' He looked toward some of his teammates, sprinting
through the outfield after a 6-5 victory against Merle's Record Rack.
The team runs sprints after every game, win or lose. At the base of the
bleachers was Mr. Behrens, who shouted out orders like ''C'mon! Push!''
to motivate his players to finish the post-game running. ''They're
still a bit young to really understand all the implications of war and
so forth,'' Mr. Behrens said. ''But they've accepted this very well,
and all thought is was pretty cool.'' In fact, Billy Fallon, 14, thinks his team now strikes a different intimidation into opponents with their name. ''I think we might get respected more now,'' he said. ''We are carrying a military name, you know.''
__________________
Jerry Gomes
3/506 LRRP 67-68-69
Oregon Cascade Chapter 101st
Airborne Division Assn.
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Task Force 3-506th Forum : CURRAHEE LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM
Topic: OUR TEAM
