Another sad passing
Posted by:
Harold Schrage (Doc) (Doc)
Wednesday August 31, 2022 8:39 pm
Harold Schrage (Doc) (Doc)
Wednesday August 31, 2022 8:39 pm
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On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 09:48:09 AM PDT, Ray Yeatman <rayyeatman32@gmail.com> wrote:
This is Lynn Rudder, Ray Yeatman's daughter. I am sad to say that Chef Ray Yeatman has gone home to with the angels. He passed away on Sunday.
His funeral will be Thursday, Sept. 1 at memory hill funeral home in Tuscaloosa, AL on Skyland Blvd. Visitation will be at 2. Service at 3.
Gathering at the VFW in Cottondale afterwards.
Thank you all whom my father loved dearly and held in the utmost respect.
Thank you and have a most blessed day !
On a personal note from Harold. Chief Yeatman led the small detachment that went from Port Hueneme to Hue/Phu Bai on December 7 in 1967. He took me, John Eade and 14 others and kept us from disappearing from our flights. He was a good leader and a very spiritual man.
He did upset me when he handed out little slips of paper with scripture quotes on them. I am one of the few Jewish Seabees and it was a bit off putting.
I stayed clear of him after we arrived and only met with him on battalion business.
At our first Mobile Construction Battalion Three reunion in Las Vegas, I heard an familiar voice that stood out from the crowd. There was the Chief sharing is great humor and sprirt. Not having seen him in 25 years, we hugged and started off a very close friendship.
We were very different people but I came to know the Chief as a caring man who loved his faith, his Seabee experiences and all of his Seabee brothers.
We spoke on the telephone and by email 3 to 4 times each year since then and I learned to respect this man so much. He had an amazing memory for scripture obviously but shared so many stories of events and places in Vietnam that had long since left my memories. He was brilliant, funny and warm to the many of us that learned to love him.
He was a proud husband to two fantastic women and he showered them with praise and pride whenever we were all together at events. As Ruby began to have health issues he brought her along to everything and she was always elegantly dresses and treated as a queen as was his first bride. As we say in Judaism, he was a mensch, a true gentleman.
I spoke with him about 10 days back while I was recuperation from Covid and he was absolutely lucid. He agreed to meet me again next year at our Nashville reunion. I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer to continue that discussion.
He served us well as a positive influence, friend and Chaplain and had the ability to share his humanity and humor with us all.
I will never forget him.
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