Head of School’s Notebook: Benny Kumiyama Sanchez

February 18, 2022

On Thursday afternoon, I stood before the Vietnam War Memorial and found myself drawn to a name. The monument is full of names. Just over 58,000 of them, a docent said. But my gaze was taken by one in particular: Benny Kumiyama Sanchez.

I was in Washington D.C. with a host of Cate students attending the Model UN Conference at Georgetown University. The students were busily preparing the manner in which they would advance the interests of the countries they would represent: Uruguay, China, and several others. They had flown through the night on a red eye from Los Angeles to have this opportunity to understand geopolitics and diplomacy on a global stage. There were as many seniors as there were underclassmen in the group. All will take away insight into the various nations and peoples of this world when they return to the Mesa on Sunday.

While they studied position sheets and researched proposals, I walked the city. I had come down the national mall to this spot. From the Washington Monument with its focus on one man, to the World War II Memorial, which is organized around sending states and carries the inscription, “Here we mark the price of freedom.” Behind those words are 4,048 gold stars, each of which represents 100 combatants lost in the conflict.

Then I came to Benny. I think I paused because of the name. Most others were just a first name and a last. Some had middle initials and there were a few Jr’s, III’s , and the like. I asked a docent why the names were rendered in the manner that they were. Did the families of the deceased decide?

The names are as they appear in the military records, he said, as determined by the soldiers themselves when they join the service. Benny wanted everyone to know his full name. I looked for others who did as Benny did and found very few. No other names conjured the image that Benny’s did of world citizenship. It reminded me of the very work the Cate students at the Model UN Conference were doing: understanding many nationalities. Benny’s were in his name.

He was from California, I learned when I returned to my hotel room and opened my computer.  Long Beach, to be exact. Benny was 22 years old when he was killed near Quang Tri, Vietnam on the 11th of March, 1968. He was a corporal in the Marine Corps and a Field Artillery Cannoneer. I found three photos of him, one very formal in uniform, and the others more casual.  He is smiling in those, looking very much the 20 year kid he was when he enlisted.

I even found a note from a soldier who served with Benny and was there when he passed. “I’ll never forget you,” the soldier wrote. Several other messages gathered through a website created to document the Vietnam Memorial contained similar sentiments. One person wrote, “You are remembered. Please watch over America.”

Benny was the third of four sons born to a family who lived in Guam and was liberated by American Forces in the Second World War. Benny’s father served in the U.S. military for 23 years, as did all of his four sons. Said Benny’s nephew, currently a member of the US Armed Forces, in a letter he wrote to his family, “We have honored the sacrifice of those who came to Guam’s aid and defense in 1945. And we will continue our service.”

I imagine there is a story like this behind every name on that wall. And in each one there is a lesson of sorts.  Nothing grandiose, perhaps. More simple stuff. The fundamentals. Things that aren’t hard to understand but can be really hard to do. Like service. Giving back in scale. “The last full measure of devotion.”

I wondered about the work our Cate students and the hundreds of delegates from other schools were doing less than a mile from where Benny and his many compatriots are honored, if such work would or could make sacrifice like Benny’s unnecessary. The United Nations was created with such a mission, to reduce conflict and facilitate diplomatic resolution. Surely a generation soon will see that dream realized. Maybe it’s this one and those students gathering for a Model UN Conference will indeed build the new model. I hope so.

Harry Truman said, “Our debt [to those lost in conflict] can never be repaid.” True. But we can try. I’d like to think that is why our students and so many of their peers from around the world are in Washington D.C. this weekend.