Bridge renamed in memory of Marine killed in Vietnam

DUNCANSVILLE -- When she was a little kid in the 1960s, Gail Regets' older brother Ralph would take her to the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River behind their house or up the road by the bridge to fish or walk across on the rocks.

On Wednesday, Regets was present when family members took a black shroud off a sign next to a successor bridge recently named after that brother, Ralph Hammel, who was killed in Vietnam by a mortar shell in 1967.

"He walked on water to me," said Regets, 15 years younger than her adored brother.

Ralph was the type of person who took care of people, said his grandnephew Shane Kennedy, who spoke at the dedication ceremony along Catfish Road, now Charger Highway.

Ralph took care of Regets, once pretending she had a strike on her fishing pole, which led to her pulling up several fish -- which he'd caught earlier, unbeknownst to her.

She used to sit on his lap as he drove his Cadillac convertible up and down the road, letting her pretend to steer.

Once, when another sister, Carol, fell out of a tree behind their house, he carried Carol into the house.

"He was just always there," said Carol on Wednesday. "When we did anything."

Carol was five years younger, and tagged along behind.

"I probably got on his nerves," she said. "(But) I just felt safe."

Hammel enlisted in the Navy fresh out of Hollidaysburg High School.

He found the Navy "not active enough," so he enlisted in the Marine Corps, Carol said.

He went to Vietnam in September 1967.

The siblings' mother got a letter after Ralph had been in that country for several months, according to Regets.

It was the first time Regets had ever seen someone cry for happiness, she said.

In it, Ralph talked about coming home soon.

It might have been for rest and recuperation, Carol said.

Then, a week or two later, another letter came, Regets said.

It also made their mother cry, Regets said.

It informed the family of Ralph's death, which occurred on March 7, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, when Ralph was 20, according to a program for the naming ceremony.

Regets remembers her parents "leaving the house in tears" after that.

Regets, 5, told them "Ralph is with Jesus in heaven; he's OK."

But their mother, Inez, was never the same, Regets said.

"She was withdrawn," Regets said.

Ralph had been "her life," Carol said.

Because their father, John, had always been quiet, it was harder to tell what effect his son's death had.

John had been a medic in World War II.

He was so quiet that the sisters never knew he'd earned three Bronze Stars until they saw the evidence after he died.

Still, their father "was there for us," Regets said.

He was a plumber who'd started the Knisely & Sons Plumbing and Heating business with his father-in-law.

He taught Regets how to bake pies and how to garden.

They would sell produce along the road, Regets said.

Their father died in 2009, the sisters said. Inez, in 2011.

State Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, introduced the bridge-naming legislation at Carol's request.

"I'm glad she reached out," said Gregory, who spoke at the ceremony.

"Many times I feel there are sacrifices made and then forgotten," Carol said. "This way it won't be."

Cpl. Ralph Hammel was married to Ruth (Aungst) Hammel and had a son, Kirk, at the time of his death, according to the program.