FROM: Stewart Barbee President of DASPO
E-mail: Oct 24, 2002
Dear Sir,
My name is Stewart Barbee. I am the president of DASPO (Department of the Army
Photographic Office) Reunion Group. We have just completed our sixth reunion
in Bethesda, MD.
Kermit was one of two KIA's from our unit. He was known and loved my the other
photographers in our unit who knew him. At every reunion, we always have a memorial
in his and the other man's honor. At our banquet's, we always set a "Missing
Man" table in his honor.
I am thrilled that I have finally found someone related to him. We have looked
forward to this opportunity for many years.
At our reunion last week, I unveiled the official "DASPO Web Site."
You will find much information about our history and you will see a picture
or two of Kermit.
We "DASPO Reunion Group" have established a DASPO Archive at Texas
Tech University, in Lubbock Texas. It is a part of the Vietnam Project / Vietnam
Archives there. Our final task is to establish a Kermit H. Yoho and Charles
F. "Rick" Rein Scholarship at TTU. This is exciting because we have
discussed, at every meeting, how to go about finding Kermit and Rick's families
so that you may attend the dedication ceremonies which will occur, we hope,
in the fall of 2004.
Please contact me ASAP
Stewart Barbee - President
DASPO Reunion Group
sbarbee@aol.com
(415) 924-0229
FROM: Scott Gibbs, Friend of Kermit
E-Mail Mon Nov. 11, 2002
Hi, Tim Yoho -
My name (as you can see) is Scott Gibbs. I served in DASPO (Department ofthe
Army Special Photographic Office) from 1964-1966 and had the privilege of serving
with Kermit in Vietnam from about June of 1965 to December of 1965. As a major
computer user, it amazes me that I have waited until now to look up Kermit's
name on Google. I guess that November 11th triggered this. I'm 61 years old
and I make videos in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
Kermit and I spent a lot of time together when I got to Vietnam. Although older
than him, he had been "in country" longer than me and he showed me
the ropes. On one occasion, we drove down highway 1 from Saigon into the delta
together to some tiny fortified hamlet, and when we got there, the special forces
commander was amazed that we hadn't been killed or captured on the way, as the
VC had cut the road and no one was attempting to drive on it.
The dumbest of dumb luck. We went on many "operations" together in
the field pretty much all over the southern half of South Vietnam, from the
central highlands to the delta and we both always managed to make it back ok.
He was a great pal and a terrific cameraman, as well as a wonderful teacher
– both of photographic skills and soldiering. It was just terrible to hear,
when I had returned to the States a few months later, that he had been killed.
It was my understanding that he died doing his job, in a rice paddy somewhere,
from an incoming mortar round.
I am, as you might imagine, a little emotional on November 11th. I've been to
the wall in Washington a couple of times, and I always look for Kermit's name.
A terrible, terrible waste - as so many other lost lives - on both sides.
I have made a number of videos lately for the Christian Brothers (formerly
of brandy fame), who operate Catholic schools all over the world. I'm not Catholic,
but I really appreciate what they do for poor kids everywhere they can. They
operate schools in Vietnam, also - and I've been back to many of the places
that Kermit and I spent time (both good and bad) twice in the last 5 years.
It was very healing. I think that anyone who came away from that awful situation
had to see the waste of it all. And the loss of Kermit was an awful one for
all of us who knew and served with him.
As I didn't really know where Kermit was killed, I went out into a paddy in
the delta this last January and had a little private ceremony, thanking Kermit
for all that he did for me and wishing that wherever he is now that he be happy
and making great movies.
You can be very proud of the wonderful young man who was taken from us all at
much too young an age.
Thanks for memorializing him. He was and is well worth it.
Scott Givvs
---------------------
Scott Gibbs
Quadrant Productions, Inc.
2394 Mariner Square Drive, #132
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 521-5474
(510) 414-5474 (Cell)
videogypsy@pacbell.net
videogypsy@sbcglobal.net
--------
and/or
20455 Silver Dawn Drive
Sonora, CA 95370
(209)588-8501
videogypsy@mlode.com
videogypsy@starband.net