In honor of Vietnam Veterans Day, this is a republishing of a story written by Vietnam Veteran Larry Flora.
Two boys from Santa Clara reached out to each other on the other side of our world. I had written a story about catching a ride on a helicopter that was going to the Cambodian border in 1970 when I was Vietnam. There were two of us soldiers heading out to a remote firebase. My new companion has his boonie hat on, it looked like Gilligan’s hat from Gilligan’s Island. “Santa Clara” was printed on the side of his hat. I pointed to it and said, “I’m from Santa Clara!” We started to talk and when I asked his name he said, “My name is Mark Stefani.” Mark went to Santa Clara High while I went to his rival school Buchser High but I soon realized we had catechism together at St Justin’s when we were in junior high school. He was being sent to his firebase to work on Artillery while I was going to the jungle to do Infantry. We were never to cross paths again, but the story continues….
Over thirty years go by and I am now working at Lucky Stores. A co-worker watched a telecast about Vietnam the night before and asks me a question about the war. A customer walking by heard the question and before I could answer, she said, “My husband was there and he said that was true.” I then told her my story about the soldier I met on the helicopter. When I ended the story, she exclaimed, “That was my husband!” I asked her if he was okay, but she sadly said that he had passed away from the effects of the war.
A few weeks go by and my niece Marjorie is shopping at Lucky’s with her daughter Leanna. Leanna’s jaw dropped. I said, “Weird huh?” She looked totally surprised and responded, “You don’t understand, Uncle Larry. That was my best friend’s Dad!” Santa Clara has always felt like a small town but it has continued to reach out in many ways.
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In the spring of 2026 the Santa Clara school district was having layoffs and at a large auditorium they were announcing the results. My son is a teacher and attended the layoff announcement. Normally he goes to the right side but did not want to see all the sad faces of teachers he knows so he went to the left where the faces were unfamiliar. While walking around, he noticed the name badge of someone he did not know and the badge read Stefani. He asked him if he was related to Mark Stefani and the young man replied that it was his father. My son excused himself and went to his car and returned with a book that I had written and handed it to this teacher and excitedly told him “ My Dad wrote a story about your Dad and it’s in his book called “My Journey”. The young man’s name is Joel and he called me the next day to thank me. Small world!!