Glendale Cemetery
28 Hoover Ave. Bloomfield NJ
Laurel Section NW
Row F Grave 27
GPS  N 40-48-509  W 074-10-826
 

Montclair Times
Thursday June 20, 1968
Page 1 and page 8

Marine Killed In Vietnam

Marine Corporal Johnnie Bee Espy, 21, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charlie B Espy of 7 Woodland Ave. Montclair, NJ died in action in Vietnam June 7 1968, according to information received last Wednesday by his parents.

Cpl. Espy the fifth Montclair resident to be killed in Vietnam in 3 years, was killed by rifle fire near Quang Nam Province.

Mrs. Essie Espy, his Mother said that she had a premonition of disaster on the very day he died when she heard of the intensive fighting in the vicinity of where her son was stationed.

His last letter was dated May 27, and generally wrote every three weeks” she said. “ had just about decided to seek information from the Red Cross in a few days, A cold shiver ran through me when I heard about the large number of casualties in the June 7 battle. Last Wednesday when the doorbell rang and I saw the Marine Uniform, I didn’t need to read the telegram or hear anything: I knew”.

Mr. and Mrs. Espy said that their son, whose first letter from Vietnam was dated last Thanksgiving Day, had been very faithful about writing, even though he had been stationed at Khe Sanh during the entire 77 days that the encampment was under heavy attack.

Early in May, Cpl. Espy wrote to his parents that he had been seeing action all over Vietnam. In April, when he
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Marine Killed

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had gone to Hawaii on leave, he called twice. Each time, he told her “Don’t worry, Mom, I’m OK.”
Cpl. Espy, a member of D Company of the First Battalion Twenty-sixth Marine Regiment, in his letters to his parents didn’t talk too much about any combat action, since he did not want them to be alarmed.

Mr. and Mrs. Espy said that their son had planned when he returned from Vietnam in November to spend his last year in the Marine Corps learning a trade, although they had no idea what it would have been.

Cpl. Espy had been an auto racing fan and occasionally raced his own car on the drag racing strips in the area. He also had been fond of horseback riding.

A native of Montclair, Cpl. Espy was born March 14, 1947. He attended Baldwin St. and Glenfield Schools. He was graduated in 1965 from Montclair High School, where he excelled in the special exercises of the physical education program.

Two months after graduating from this school, he enlisted on Aug. 18 1965, in the Marine Corps. He served in Parris Island, SC. and Camp LeJeune, NC. prior to being stationed in both Puerto Rico and Cuba before going to Vietnam, about the middle of November of 1967.

Mr. Espy is employed in the Sanitation Division of the Public Works Department of the Town of Montclair.

In addition to his parents Cpl. Espy is survived by 2 sisters, Miss Deborah Espy at home, and Mrs. Pauline Canada of East Orange, and his maternal Grandmother, Mrs. Eliza Jennings of Athens GA.

Funeral services for Cpl. Espy were held Tuesday in the Bright Hope Baptist Church. The Reverent William Wheeler, pastor officiated.

Interment was at the Glendale Cemetery.

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