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Art Cammaressi lived in Torrance, CA and was a Merchant Marine. He died from complications of open heart surgery in Long Beach, CA on May 1, 2000. Art was buried at sea on Saturday, May 20, 2000. Art's Social Security Number is 558-58-6113.
This page contains "remembrances" to him written by his friends, who loved him dearly.
T'was the summer of '69. I don't remember where or from whom came the nickname, but it was long before Sylvestor Stallone was Rambo. The nickname fit and it stuck.
Here came this great big, hairy, robust, and congenial man. He was bigger than any of the rest of us, and he certainly lived big. He had a great attitude, was always positive, was always willing, and that was contagious. The rest of us just naturally gravitated to Cambo because he was always a lot of fun. He was everybody's favorite.
The Vietnamese were fascinated by Cambo. Compared to them, he was HUGE. Whenever we were around the little people, they would cluster around Cambo. He, in turn, would entertain them. They would get close enough to pull the hair on his arms or his chest.
We were there to be soldiers. It was a war and war is a business of dying and killing, not pretty. We were good at it, and we did far more killing than dying. We were a family. We shared our food, our foxholes, our fears, our dreams, our victories, and our losses. That brought us all even closer together. We were all we had. It was 24 hours a day of each other. The only people we saw outside of our family were shooting at us.
We had to depend on each other; there wasn't anybody else. The man next to you was the man who might save your life. Everybody had to pull his share. No room for slackers. That's the only way it could work; and that's how we worked it.
Cambo was always there. Always. When things got ugly, Cambo was always right there, doing his share and more. Here was a man everybody knew they could count on. For that we respected Cambo. For his charisma, we loved him.
I most vividly remember July 19, 1969. We bumped into the bad guys; it was their setup. Right up front we immediately had a bunch of our people wounded and exposed to more fire. Here came Cambo with his machine gun. He just stood up and started blazing away at the bad guys who were shooting at all of us. That worked. Cambo really put the hurt on 'em. They ducked back into their holes and quit shooting. A lot of lives were spared that day by Cambo and his machine gun. Our family was saved.
He was truly a hero. Our hero. A warrior's hero. He is remembered with fondness, respect, and gratitude by those of us who had the priviledge and the honor of having that summer of '69 with Cambo. He was a soldier.
If you would like to submit a remembrance, including pictures, for Art Cammaressi, please email the webmaster.
