R.J. Marx: Everyday People: A veteran continues to help others in Seaside

May 2—SEASIDE — Lou Neubecker flew on Marine One with two presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. As flight crew and hydraulics instructor, he held a key role in the U.S. Marine Corps squadron responsible for the transportation of the president, vice president and top government officials.

"I was the man saluting them when they walked off," he said.

Neubecker, 73, grew up in San Francisco. His grandfather served in the army in Italy and his father served in World War II in the U.S. Navy.

On his 18th birthday, he got his draft notice. "I said, 'Hell no, I'm not going into the Army," he remembered.

Instead, he went down to the Marine recruiter, signed the paperwork and headed to boot camp in June 1967.

Attending aviation school, he became a hydraulics instructional mechanic in Marine helicopters.

He was sent to Camp Pendleton in October 1968 and then to Vietnam. Only 35 days later, flying an operation as a machine-gunner, the helicopter he was flying in got shot down.

"We were supposedly in friendly territory," he recalled. "We were taking live fire from the tree line. And it hit, from what I understand, the main transmission and we auto-rotated down. And I don't remember too much after that. I was in the hospital for 18 months."

Neubecker was evacuated from Vietnam for medical care back in the United States.

One of his vertebrae disks was cracked. He had no feeling in his legs and he was unable to walk.

Neubecker doesn't remember what happened, but he got sent home and received a medal for valor in helping others in the chopper to safety.

"They were all fine — hearsay, because I don't remember — supposedly I pulled everybody out," he said.

Neubecker won't talk about the specifics of his medals, but this was only one of many he received over his military career, including a Purple Heart, which is awarded to soldiers who are wounded or killed .

After a period of physical rehabilitation, he had the chance to take a medical discharge but opted to remain in the service.

He was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro before being sent back to Vietnam — this time assigned not to helicopters but to fixed-wing aircraft as a hydraulics and structural system specialist.

"There were five of us that were helicopter guys," Neubecker said. "They called us the 'Sergeants Five' because all five of us were helicopter guys. We didn't have a clue what we were doing on the fixed wing."

He was stationed in the South Vietnamese stronghold of Da Nang. He remembers the day when 34 bombs weighing 500 pounds each were dropped mistakenly by five American warplanes on the giant American and South Vietnamese air base at Da Nang in January 1973.

"First night we were there, they put us up in the barracks. We were walking in to the flight line the next morning and all of a sudden it was like watching a World War II movie. We're hearing this whistle. 'What the hell is that?' And all of a sudden bombs started hitting," he said. "The Air Force was leading a raid on North Vietnam and they missed. They were bombing the base in Da Nang."

Neubecker returned to the U.S. later that year and was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in New River, North Carolina. He later served aboard the USS Guadalcanal during the evacuation of Lebanon in 1976. "All hell broke loose over there," he said. "I was lucky there."

Neubecker finally left the military with a medical discharge in December 1986.

"I retired on a Friday and Monday I went up to McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, California," he said. "I filled out a job application and got hired on the spot."

His first marriage, which produced daughters Sammantha Ann and Jennifer Rebecca, ended in 1983.

He met his second wife, Beverly, through the two girls, who were friends with her daughter, Ursula. Neubecker and Beverly married in 1986, and now have 36 years together.

With friends on the North Coast and much of his work in Seattle, the family moved to Seaside.

"It's not the hustle and bustle that you get down in LA, San Francisco or D.C.," he said. "It's getting big now. But when we first moved up here, the people were so friendly. People don't care where you came from. They greeted us with open arms."

Neubecker immediately began a path of civic involvement, joining the board of the Bob Chisholm Community Center and the Planning Commission, where he has served for five years.

"We're Catholics and we go to Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church," he said. "On the first day we were there, people came up to us. 'Are you guys new to the parish or are you just visiting?' 'No, we're new.' It was awesome. We really fit right in."

He volunteers with the church, the Marine Corps League, based in Warrenton, and is an adjutant with the American Legion Post 99.

As a member of the Planning Commission, he said he sees affordable housing and homelessness as two of the city's top problems.

Nevertheless, he sees Seaside as essentially a friendly, small town. He sees positive changes ahead.

"I think it is going to get bigger and better, bigger and better, bigger and better," he said.