Sign of honor
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on January 25, 2017 9:18 AM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Bill Boyd holds a sign as he talks about his hopes to get a street named after Dan Bullock, the youngest soldier killed in the Vietnam War, Friday at the Wayne County Veterans Services Office.
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Pictured is a street sign that reads "PFC Dan Bullock Way" and a photograph of young soldier.
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Bill Boyd talks about his hopes to get a street named after Dan Bullock, the youngest soldier killed in the Vietnam War, Friday at the Wayne County Veterans Services Office
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Bill Boyd holds a sign that reads "PFC Dan Bullock Way" Friday at the Wayne County Veterans Services Office.
Chaplain Bill Boyd runs the tip of his fingers softly over the date engraved on the black, granite headstone.
The birth date of the veteran interred holds significance for himself, as well.
Five years ago, as Boyd knelt at the graveside of a fallen Marine in Elmwood Cemetery, he could not take his eyes off of the carved month, day and year because that same day ---- Dec. 21, 1953, amid the Korean War ---- Marine Corps Sgt. Boyd landed in Kobe, Japan.
That was also the day, half way around the world, that Dan Bullock was born. Fifteen years later, Bullock, too, would deploy to the South Pacific, to another land for another war.
But unlike Boyd, Bullock would not come home to kneel at the graves of other veterans. He would instead fall at the hands of the enemy, earning in the process a distinction he still holds today, that of the youngest serviceman to die in combat during the Vietnam War.
He was 15.
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Today, Boyd, now an 81-year-old man, moves his hand over a reflective, green street sign which reads, "PFC DAN BULLOCK WAY."
The sign was created to honor the Marine's life and death, but it doesn't stand beside a road just yet. Boyd hopes to one day place it at the corner of U.S. 117 and Canal Street, near the cemetery.
Bullock's now famous story began in 1969 when, at 14, he forged his age on his birth certificate to join the Marine Corps.
Less than a year later, on the night of June 7, just little more than one month into his first tour, a fellow Marine talked Bullock into taking over his shift for the evening.
That night, as an enemy assault broke out at Liberty Bridge, Bullock ran from his bunker to the supply area for ammunition and returned safely. He then ran back for more. But on his second trip, the enemy advanced further and left Bullock and six of his Fox Company brothers dead.
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Bullock entered the Vietnam War in May of '69 after his mother, Alma Floyd Bullock, passed away four years earlier. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, just after her death to live with his father, Brother Bullock, but the teenager hoped for a different life than the bustling city.
"Both of us had that rough life," Boyd said. "When I saw what he had done and read the story, it touched me because I was that kid."
Boyd, who now lives in Princeton, grew up outside of Charlotte. He said he ran away from an orphanage at age 15, and he began farming for friends to complete high school. Boyd said he refused to put five cents into a drink machine because he knew he needed to save his money.
Not having the funds for college, Boyd attempted to join the Air Force, but he weighed a mere 115 pounds at age 18. An Air Force recruiter denied Boyd's entrance into the 6-year-old branch of the military at that time, so Boyd walked to the Marine Corps recruiting office where he was accepted -- barely. Boyd said he could not have swallowed another glass of water that day to add weight.
"This is one of the things that touched my heart with Dan Bullock here, going in at 15," he said. "I would have gone in the military myself and lied about my age, but 80 pounds wouldn't cut it."
Boyd endured the 13 weeks at Paris Island by answering to "Feather Merchant" from the drill instructor during mail call. He said that name put fight in his small frame.
He left boot camp, flew to Charlotte and walked into the Air Force recruiting office. With his National Defense Service medal and his expert rifle medal on his dress blues, Boyd stood in front of the recruiter and asked, "Staff Sergeant, do I look grown up enough, now?"
Boyd returned to Paris Island where he was ordered to go to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, and from there, to Japan. For 10 years, Boyd served as a Marine Corps petroleum analyst overseas.
Something, however, pulled at him.
"I had been dodging a commitment I had made to the Lord about the ministry," Boyd said. "The next morning, I had to inform the sergeant I was not a career Marine."
"The amazing thing, he concurred in what I was doing. He said, 'Sergeant, I think you can do this world more good as a minister than you could as a Marine.'"
Boyd ministered to Marine veteran's in the states, but he wanted to help servicemen on Okinawa Island off the coast of Japan. He married his wife, Anne Boyd, in 1990, but due to Anne's back problems, they were not certified to go overseas.
He became a chaplain in 1996, and he would go on to touch the lives of Marines for the next 14 years until someone touched his own life.
Boyd attended a Purple Heart banquet in Goldsboro in 2012, when he heard Bullock's story. He researched his family and discovered Bullock's sister, Gloria Bullock Barnes, lived in Goldsboro.
Upon listening to her stories about Bullock's life, Boyd began to feel a connection between he and Bullock. Barnes told Boyd a street sign for her brother stands at the corner of Flushing Avenue and Lee Avenue in Brooklyn, but one should be erected in Goldsboro.
Barnes had the sign made, and she mailed it to Boyd. He said fellow Marine Bill Broadway suggested it should go at the corner of U.S. 117 and Canal Road.
"I'd like to see Canal Road renamed, 'Dan Bullock Way.' I think, probably, if we get it up at all, we'll probably put it up inside the cemetery," Boyd said. "I would like to see it at the entrance."
Boyd said he met with former Mayor Al King and city councilmen, but he was informed the sign would be a "state problem" because U.S. 117 is a state road. Boyd said he last contacted the North Carolina Department of Transportation five years ago, and he said nothing was done about renaming a street sign.
According to N.C. DOT's road, bridge or ferry naming request process, one should complete an application for renaming a sign and submit the application to the chief engineer's office. If the application is approved, the local government should write a draft with the honoree's accomplishments, credentials and the name of the new road to possibly rename the road.
But according to the policy for honorary designations of state transportation assets, the Blue Star Memorial Highway is the main road for street signs bearing the names of veterans.
"Basically, that's the same song and dance I got," Boyd said. "It's right that Dan Bullock be recognized."
"And not just Dan Bullock. There's been some mighty fine Marines, mighty fine soldiers, mighty fine sailors, airmen that died over there."
Sally Johnson, executive assistant with the City of Goldsboro's Planning Department, said Boyd could petition the city council to place the sign in H.V. Brown Park, which sits across the street from Elmwood Cemetery. She also suggested Boyd send a letter to the city council, asking for their support to honor Bullock with a plaque or sign in a park.
Johnson said Boyd could possibly receive better information from new council members, and she said they may push him in a better direction to get the sign placed in a park or the cemetery.
Boyd still carries the sign in the package it came in, and he still visits Bullock's headstone to place flags at his grave to honor the fallen soldier.
He looks at the engraved connection between he and Bullock as well.
"At 15, he was a man," Boyd said. "Who of us in his shoes would not have done the same thing?"