Born and raised in SLO, Louis Mello Jr. carries lasting memories of Vietnam

He refuses to watch war movies! Since 1968 Louis Mello Jr. has shied away from talking about Vietnam. But he let his dear wife, Jan, transcribe his words for Times Past.

Three days before Christmas, 1968, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Mello received a Western Union message that every family dreaded: “YOUR SON PRIVATE FIRST CLASS LOUIS S MELLO II USMC WAS INJURED ON 20 DECEMBER 1968 IN QUANG NAM PROVINCE . . . HE SUSTAINED A GUNSHOT WOUND TRU THE RIGHT THIGH FROM HOSTILE RIFLE FIRE WHILE ON PATROL.”

Louis was born 20 years earlier at Mountain View Hospital. The buildings still stand at California and Marsh streets in San Luis Obispo.

His father worked on the Marre Ranch that became the entrance to PG&E’s Diablo Canyon facility. His mother worked in the Avila Beach abalone sheds. The family lived in a little house where the Avila Bay Inn now stands. Louis “thought that every kid had the Pacific Ocean as part of his front yard and playground.”

His San Luis Obispo parents spoke both Portuguese and English. At five, Louis recalls, “I preferred Portuguese.” On the first day of kindergarten at Avila School, his parents were told to “take me home until I could speak English.” After that, his parents only spoke English in his presence.

“I missed the opportunity to become bilingual.”

Louis’ family rented and then bought 25 acres at the end of what is now Mello Lane/Angie Lou Lane. A “charter member of Los Ranchos School” in fifth grade, he transferred to Mission in seventh grade.

At Mission, Central Catholic High, Louis wrestled, was the center on the football team and president of the Senior Class. “I didn’t go to a gym to stay in shape for football. I hauled hay all summer!

“I enrolled in Cuesta College (when the parking lots were cow pastures and the classrooms were barracks) and took enough units to keep my 2 S classification, as I knew that would keep me from being drafted. I also worked about four jobs: I pumped gas for Villa’s UNOCAL on weekends, worked on and off for Stanley (now Cole) Motors, sweeping the shop and washing cars, drove the Mission bus in the morning to pick the kids up and again in the afternoon to take them home. (I drove the Mission football team in 1967 when they beat Arroyo Grande 50-0 at Cal Poly!!!) I also worked sorting mail at the Post Office from 4:00 to 11:00 P.M.”

At the Post Office, “I had the opportunity to check the draft notices that came in from the Selective Service for the entire county. I was always looking for mine and hoping to God it wasn’t there.”

An ugly war in Southeast Asia interrupted Louis’ and America’s heretofore idyllic existence during the late 1960’s.

“My buddy, Nick Greenelsh, also worked at the Post Office and we hated the uncertainty of not knowing when we would get ‘THE LETTER.’ We went down to the draft board and asked if we were on the next call and were told we were not. They could not tell us about the call after that, so we said to put us down and then we notified them that we would be heading to Mexico for one last hurrah.

“We spent several weeks in Mexico ... scuba diving and hanging out with the locals. We even helped to round up cows in my 58 Chevy with no reverse.

“We got THE LETTER when we got home and headed down to LA for our ... physical.

“Nick and I knew that we more than likely would not be going back home after this physical. We would drive by home in a bus as we would head to the Army base at Fort Ord — or so we thought. We stayed in a sleazy hotel and drank the bottle of champagne Nick had brought.”

By a strange twist of fate, Louis and Nick were in the Marine Corps and headed to San Diego, not Fort Ord.

To be continued.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Born and raised in SLO, Louis Mello Jr. carries lasting memories of Vietnam."