Larry L. Maxam - Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Recently, in my home town of Burbank, California,
the city council voted unanimously to re-name Pacific Park in honor and
memory of United States Marine Corporal Larry L. Maxam,
a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Corporal
Maxam died February 2, 1968, at Cam Lo District, Quang Tri Province,
Vietnam.
The Burbank Veterans Commemorative Committee
will dedicate the park in memory of Larry L. Maxam on Memorial Day,
Monday, May 25, 2009. Larry Maxam attended Emerson Elementary, John
Muir Junior High (now Middle School) and Burbank High School.
Burbank, California 1963 – John Muir Junior High
In the ninth grade at John Muir, boys took Metal
Shop. Inside, the shop class was like a Gulag factory, with dark,
grease-stained windows. There were many obscure and dangerous machines
placed around the room. In the middle of the shop, there was a
gas-fired forge, roaring away at an unsafe temperature. At one end of
the shop, there were long, shared workbenches, where we “slaves to the
state” fashioned metalwork of 
questionable quality and value.
questionable quality and value. Our major project for the semester was to saw,
forge, grind and buff a metal chisel out of steel bar stock. Wearing
heavy gloves, we held the red-hot metal with huge tongs. Then we
hammered the glowing bar against an anvil until an unknown alchemy was
supposed to change it from a slug into metal-art. As they say in the
commercials, “Don’t try this at home”. With my fear of the forge
showing through, my chisel looked like a misshapen metal lollipop.
Sitting next to me at my workbench that year was
Larry Maxam. Larry was a handsome young man, with sweptback, dark hair
and a movie star face that 
was
mature beyond his years. Soon after Mr. Bins, our shop teacher, had
told me I was heading for a failing grade, Larry handed me his perfectly
formed chisel. He had ground, beveled and polished it into an object
of metallic perfection.
was
mature beyond his years. Soon after Mr. Bins, our shop teacher, had
told me I was heading for a failing grade, Larry handed me his perfectly
formed chisel. He had ground, beveled and polished it into an object
of metallic perfection.“I already got an ‘A’ on this one”, he said to me
with a smile. “Go ahead. You can use it”. While my eyes widened in
astonishment, I realized that Larry was the angel I had been hoping
for. I too received an 'A' grade for Larry’s chisel. At the end of the
semester, I was not sure if the chisel was a gift, or if Larry had only
lent it to me. Secretly, I kept it as a souvenir. Almost twenty years
later, I misused the chisel and damaged it beyond repair. Angry with
myself for again dishonoring Larry’s gift, I tossed it away.
I
remember encountering Larry only once during our time together at
Burbank High. As we passed each other, Larry’s unassuming aura of
self-confidence almost bowled me over. My complicity in the "chisel
incident" and the fact that I had secretly kept it made me shy. After
he had passed by without
seeing me, I blurted out his name. Larry stopped on the landing of the
Main Stairway. Frozen in the north light from the window above, he
turned, looked up at me, then smiled and nodded. After that, I lost
track of Larry Maxam, until two years ago, when I discovered his fate.
As soon as he was eighteen, Larry dropped out of Burbank High and joined the Marines. At age nineteen, Larry saw military action in Viet Nam. During one major battle, North Vietnamese Army
regulars threatened to overrun the position of Larry’s unit. Despite
taking several direct hits from enemy fire, Larry continued to maintain
his position and fire a machine gun until reinforcements arrived. One
week after his twentieth birthday, Larry Maxam died on the battlefield.
Larry Maxam became the only alumnus of a Burbank
public school to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, as awarded
posthumously by then President Richard M. Nixon.
Larry Maxam will always be my friend and my hero.
For more information posted by friends of Larry Maxam, click on "Comments", below.
By James McGillis at 07:26 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (4) | Link
