A letter home

It started with a letter home from a brother to a sister.

"Dear Linda,

Hi there! First off, there is something I would like you to do for me.

You see, back in the States, towns and cities adopt military companies over here. Now, what I was wondering is, if you could talk to someone in San Mateo or San Francisco and fix it so one of them would adopt our company.

You see, by having a town or city adopt us, it brings the morale of the guys up as high as the clouds. Then on special occasions, like Christmas etc. ..., they send things to the company.

It would really be great if we were adopted by some town.

Talk to your boss about it. Tell him that if we can get adopted, the people involved would be able to send us things and be able to write to us. In turn, we’ll write to them.

So far, the word is out that the ‘Hells Angels’ have adopted us.

So if you can get this request in the newspaper we’ll all of us here, would be grateful.

Please try.

Love Joe.”

The letter was sent from Sgt. Joe Artavia, who was serving in Vietnam, to his sister Linda Artavia in San Mateo and dated Dec. 18, 1967.

Both were barely 20 when the letter was written.

Linda took her brother’s request to heart and so did the city of San Mateo, which adopted Alpha Company, 1-327 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, known as the "Screaming Eagles” in early 1968.

Joe Artavia would die in action two months later.

His sister, however, not only made a visit to Vietnam during Christmas 1968 to personally deliver letters and gifts from home, she also made it her life’s mission to link American troops stationed all over the world with other cities for adoption.

In 1990, she formed a nonprofit called America Supporting Americans and has since had more than 200 cities adopt units with 75 cities still active in the program.

Linda will be in town this weekend as San Mateo is celebrating the 40th anniversary of a welcome home parade for the Screaming Eagles held back in 1972. The city was the only in the country to hold a parade for returning veterans from Vietnam.

The parade will feature current members of the Screaming Eagles, ready to take a third tour of duty in Afghanistan, and those who also served in Vietnam, including Lake City, Fla. resident Howard Shepardson, who keeps the key to the city that San Mateo officials gave him back in 1970 in his pocket every day.

It will also feature Joe Artavia’s platoon leader, Lt. Steve Patterson, who was assigned to be Linda’s personal escort when she visited Vietnam back in 1968. The two would later marry and have been together for four decades.

Yesterday, current members of the 101st arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Ft. Campbell, Ky. for a weekend of events, including a boot camp this morning, parade tomorrow and Memorial Day observance Monday at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno.

The city has garnered more than $44,000 in donations for the weekend event and more than $8,000 for the Buy a Soldier a meal campaign, a recognition dinner tonight at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City.

The donations came in all forms, as the owners of Mills Square in San Mateo donated piles of scrap copper to the cause.

San Mateo City Clerk Patrice Olds has been working on putting the event together for months and came to learn that current Councilwoman Maureen Freschet led a letter-writing campaign for the Screaming Eagles when she was in middle school.

Freschet was the student body president as an eighth grader at St. Gregory School in San Mateo at the time.

She read about the city adopting the Screaming Eagles in the newspaper while eating dinner with her parents.

"It seemed really important to write the troops,” she said. "They deserved appreciation.”

Freschet looks forward to meeting some of the troops who marched in the welcome home parade in 1972 that she attended with her family.

"I have such a sense of pride in the city. I’m really excited to participate again,” she said.

For more information on the event visit www.cityofsanmateo.org/index.aspx?NID=1452.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by email: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.