A Last Request Hanging in Balance : Youth Wanted Military Burial; Marines, Senator Try to Oblige

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Bob Menke thought it was the least he could do to honor the last request of his young friend.

So Menke offered to give up the government cemetery plot that he is guaranteed as a Marine in order that the remains of 15-year-old John Zimmerman of Fountain Valley can be buried in a military cemetery.

“It’s a lovely gesture . . . (but) not possible,” said Lynda Royster, an aide to U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson.

John Zimmerman, a Fountain Valley High School freshman, had suffered from muscular dystrophy since birth. On Jan. 15, three days before he died, John was made an honorary Marine in a bedside ceremony at Fountain Valley Community Hospital.

It was, the boy’s father said later, the highlight of John’s brief life.

John had become friends with several Marine Corps counselors at a summer camp for muscular dystrophy patients. At John’s memorial service, a Marine buddy gave a eulogy and uniformed Marines shed tears for their young friend.

Official Word Awaited

Wilson, a former Marine infantry officer, received a letter from the boy’s parents asking for the senator’s help in granting their son’s last wish. For almost two weeks, Wilson’s staff and John’s parents, Richard and Sandra Zimmerman, have been waiting for word from Washington on whether the unusual request will be honored.

It will take an executive order by President Reagan to waive the rules that limit burial in national cemeteries to military personnel and their spouses and children, Veterans Administration officials said. A White House spokesman said Thursday that no decision has been made.

Only once before, in the case of a former U.S. ambassador, was such an exception made, a VA official said Thursday.

“There is no legal basis on which we can authorize the interment,” said Dean Holt, executive assistant to the VA chief of memorial affairs. “The fact that he (John) was made an honorary Marine doesn’t confer that right upon him.”

“Right now,” said John’s mother, Sandra, “it’s just a matter of waiting for the President to make a decision.”

The family and Wilson’s office have received calls and letters from Marines who support bending the rules for John’s sake, she said.

Application to Join Corps

Sgt. Menke is one of the staunchest supporters. He first met John after receiving a notice that the boy had mailed in an application to join the Marines. Menke telephoned John and asked him to come in for a talk.

(The application was John’s way of gathering information about the Marines and getting on the corps’ mailing list, his mother explained.)

“I was surprised,” Menke recalled of the day John’s father brought him to the Beach Boulevard recruiting office. “He was in a wheelchair.”

Unable to sign John up as a recruit, Menke said he chose instead to “enlist him as a friend.”

The boy built model airplanes and tanks for Menke and Sgt. John Gorsuch at the Marine recruiting office. In turn they provided him Marine posters for his home.

“I hope it goes through for him,” Menke said of the request for a military burial. “It would make me very happy. Little Johnny was loved in this office.”

But if the Commander in Chief doesn’t see fit to make an exception, Menke said, “Johnny didn’t want to push it. He didn’t want to see President Reagan on the spot.”