In Memory

Jim Pollard

Viet Nam, September 04, 1967

http://www.virtualwall.org/dp/PollardJF01a.htm



 
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12/02/11 09:06 AM #1    

Linda Jacobson (Gasque)

We need to put an Flag on him too. He deserves it. Great person.


12/04/13 01:55 PM #2    

Robert Slagle

Jim died in the service of our great nation, then he should absolutely have a flag behind his name, he is one of our many heros who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice, may god bless you Jim.

Jim and I had a few classes together during our high school years, I always expected him to be a doctor, but he never had the chance.

Bob Slagle


08/19/21 09:10 PM #3    

Robert Boice

I knew Jim. We both had Model 'T' Ford's.  I was in Washington DC in 1992 if my memory serves me.  Traced Jim's name on paper from the Vietnam Memorial. Jim was a great guy. Died needlessly so young. R I P Jim Pollard.    Tim Jones. Highline 64

 


08/20/21 01:17 AM #4    

Sam Cheyne

Jim was a dedicated man and we salute you for your dedication to our country...I feel fortunate that I was one of those who survived Vietnam and came  home.  R.I.P.

 

 

 

 


08/21/21 08:57 AM #5    

Guy Helm

I was and still am very saddened by Jim Pollard's death in Viet Nam. He absolutely deserves to have a flag by his name, there should not be any question about that. He was a neighbor, and a classmate sence we were in the 4th grade and a very good friend.

I heard a story years ago about how Jim was medeveced out via helo, don't know how much truth there is in it. We had another neighbor that was a couple years ahead of us in school Jeff McClure. Jeff had joined the army and went into the warrant officer program to be a helo pilot after getting his wings he was sent to Viet Nam as an army air calvary helo pilot. The story goes that Jeff was the helo pilot that medeveced Jim and that Jim had died on Jeff's chopper. I was never able to verify this story so again not sure if it is true never the less very sad and I think about him often.

We Salute You Jim Pollard

Guy Helm


08/25/21 09:55 AM #6    

George Linville

 

 

I've been particularly moved by this lovely string of comments on Jim.  When we moved to Normandy Park before 4th grade Jim Pollard and Dick Perry became my new best friends.  Jim and I slept out in his huge lawn and we ate records numbers of pancakes a lot that summer.  I think Jim just wanted to welcome a new face to that lovely community where we all we grew up.

He was my first friend lost in that terrible conflict while many of us lounged along on 2 S deferments and his memory has never faded.  It was certainly a part of my desire to serve at age 54 in the Gulf. I'm certain many of us have honored him at the Wall in Washington  DC and I wanted to thank Guy Helm for his comment.  Very well said, Guy!   Vaya con Dios, Jimmy

 

 

 

 

 


08/27/21 03:43 PM #7    

Marcie Loomis (Easterlin)

It has been touching to see this group of heartfelt comments about my gradeschool friend and classmate, "Jimmy" Pollard. I remember so well the day we learned of Jim's passing during the Vietnam War, when so many of us luckier ones were just embarking on our adulthood, with the promise of so many years ahead of us. It was jarring and very sad to accept that his light had blinked out so suddenly, and that he was truly gone. 

I recall the inviting old farmhouse where he and his sister lived, surrounded by grassy fields where we neighborhood kids played. And the two enormous airdales which barked and leaped against their fence when I (quickly) walked by. That was back when most families just let their dogs run free, but I had been warned that there was a good reason why these two stayed caged up. But my strongest memory of the Pollards was their annual neighborhood Christmas party. We kids, dressed in our holiday best, would tease and laugh and dash around the house, swiping a cookie from the buffet table when we could. And the best time of all was when we would all gather around the piano and sing Christmas carols. (Yes, that really was a thing, back then.) I heard "Joy to the World" for the first time there, and thought I'd never heard a cooler song. It became my favorite from then on, and when I would hear it at concerts through the years, I would think of Jim Pollard and the long ago fun of those old-fashioned parties. I hope that Jim, in all these ensuing years since his passing, has somehow found peace, and yes, even joy.

 

 

 

 


08/28/21 11:50 PM #8    

Kathy Stewart (Pike)

Very good friend and very funny guy. I too traced his name on paper at the Vietnam memorial. Such a sacrifice and loss.  We must remember all that fought and died in the face of duty to our country.  So sad to remember this today as we have lost 13 more this week. 


08/29/21 12:23 PM #9    

Don Austin

I did not know Jim well.  I now live in Normandy Park and nearly everytime I drive by his old house on Sylvester Road, I think about him.  I saw him briefly when he returned from Viet Nam for his R&R, half-way through his tour of duty.  He was supposed to being doing his R&R in Hawaii.  I was told at the time that he broke the rules by hopping a jet for Seattle to spend R&R with family and friends.  I was told at the time that he did not think he was going to make it back from the war.  And yet he got back on the jet and flew back when it was time! 

While in Seattle during R&R, he spent some time with Jim Rawlings, the Young Life leader, who spoke at Jim's Memorial Service at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church a few months later.  Jim told one story to Jim Rawlings and Jerry Theckston (Class of 1967) that was passed on to me second-hand about Jim shooting at a Viet Cong and then throwing down his weapon chasing after him into his hole or tunnel.  What courage!  What dedication to duty, getting back on the jet!  What a Marine!  I believe from what I was told at the time that his weapon was a B.A.R.

I don't know whether it is true, but was also told at the time that Jim's entire unit had been wiped out.  I heard this about the same time as death and his memorial service. 

I remember being told around 1967 that in the year after we graduated, Jim and Mike Gruse had gone to Europe and worked as brick-layers for a time in Germany.  (Odd story.  Not sure if it is reliable.)  I understood (I think I was told this too) that they got their draft notices about the same time after that and joined up with the Marines.  Mike also served.  I was at Mike's going away gathering, a rather sober party, at a place on SE corner and shore of Lake Burien.    

I saw Guy Helm's information about the med-evac and Jeff McClure (Class of 1963).  He was an outstanding athlete and played first string line for the U of O.  Jeff's family owned the Funeral Home and possibly the cemetary on Hwy 99 next to the airport.  He was working there in 1975 when I attended a funeral there.  He may still be around and could be tracable through the office at the cemetary if anyone wanted to verify the medivac story.

I also was at the Viet Nam Memorial in D.C. in 2004 and spent time next to Jim's name and Bob Wulff's (Class of 1965).  I also visited the name of a Mt. Rainier graduate, Tony Vigil (Class of 1965), a 115 lb. wrestler for Mr. Rainier who was a Marine and a tunnel rat in Viet Nam.

These men (Jim, Bob, and Tony) truly served and I am proud to have known them.


08/29/21 02:48 PM #10    

Greg Fuller (Fuller)

I mistakenly assumed Jim was interred in Arlington.  His memorial relating to Portland's Willamette National Cemetery includes his graduation portraits from high school and boot camp.  In hindsight, they now seem to show a strong, determined young man beyond the gregarious, joyful kid I so well remember.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3924353/james-frederick-pollard/flower

Because of your various posts honoring Jim, I recently dropped by the Port of Bremerton.  There the Seattle built destroyer USS TURNER JOY is moored and open to the public.  She was a participant in the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident that led to the Vietnam War.  Her motto, "To be rather than to seem", struck me as particularly fitting for our brave Lance Corporal Pollard.  He walked the walk that most of us could not or would not--just like the dozen young marines, all about Jim's age, lost last week in Kabul.

To you who knew him better than I, thanks for sharing.


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