Roy Wetzel was baptized in a Reformed Church in the Netherlands, his life consecrated to God. When a child in the Netherlands, he was awe-stricken at the sight of the sudden death of a cow only a short distance from where he was standing. The cow was struck by lightening and dropped dead instantly. The image of the cow returned to him in Viet Nam.
On the other hand, also in Deventer, the Netherlands, Roy was greatly impressed by fields of tulips, each field a different color in the spring and the tulip laden barges on the canal in front of his home. This great beauty turned him to an awareness of the Creator of beauty.
These two themes--death and horror on the one hand, and beauty and hope on the other--either tore at him or brought respite throughout his life.
Roy's family moved to Vanport, Pennsylvania and lived on L street in a housing project there. He suffered racial prejudice there since his father was half Indonesian. Roy was not allowed to play on common playing fields in Vanport. Eventually he and another outcast friend burned the men's clubhouse because of this. They only meant to stink it up with a stink bomb, but the place flamed up.
Roy's father, Willie Wetzel, tried to make his children strong by teaching them the martial arts. This was sometimes hard for Roy to bear. Roy kept bricks in his room to break as an outlet for his frustrations.
But as Roy grew up he became proficient in the martial arts. By the time he had been in the United States a few years, he felt he could handle any problem that arose, and sometimes proceeded to do so. If anyone attacked his brother Wim or his sister Jane, Roy proceeded to take the attackers apart even if he had to hunt them down one by one.
Roy graduated from Beaver Area High School. While at the school, a teacher grabbed Roy and threw him up against a wall. By reflex action, Roy speared his arms upward and came down with his elbows on the teacher's wrists--dislocating both wrists.
Roy joined the Marines and was taken to Parris Island for training. There he and four other recruits were singled out as being black belts. Each of the other four was taken out and returned badly beaten up. Then it was Roy's turn. When he entered the room it was four against one. Roy took all four out in hand to hand combat and was held in high esteem by the other soldiers.
Roy was shipped out to Viet Nam. A bouncing Betty booby trap and a gernade in a C-ration can both failed to go off when Roy was close enough to be killed by them. During a cease fire a man beside him had his head blown away. Ane then Roy saw a man killed by lightening as the cow had been killed when he was a little boy in the Netherlands.
On Highway One on the way to Khe Senh the convoy Roy was with was ambushed. He was on a flatbed with fifty other Marines. He was sitting down and the rest were standing up. All of the standing Marines were killed. Only Roy escaped. During the escape, Roy ran head on into a Vietnamese with an automatic weapon. Both his weapon and Roy's failed to fire. Roy killed him with his knife.
Roy could not decide one Sunday whether or not to go to a church service in a grass hut. Finally he decided not to go. The hut took a direct hit, and almost everyone there was killed including the chaplin.
He also witnessed during the Tiet New Year the butchering of a live water buffalo. These images disturbed him. Then once when he was sleeping on a dike between two rice paddies and dreaming, he awoke to find a water buffalo breathing into his face, his face touching the water buffalow's. In his terror he emptied his gun into the animal.
Roy worked for awhile going into Viet Cong caves where arms were stored. In one cave he found medical supplies including a beautiful mahogany chest with the words engraved on it: "To our friends the Viet Cong from the Friends Service Committee." A sense of futility over Viet Nam came over him then because he felt betrayed by America.
When Roy was discharged, he had to begin life as a civilian again, a difficult transition. He instructed in the martial arts and went to college, also working night turn at Westinghouse. He married a woman whom he found very attractive, but his hard-working life was not agreeable to her and it ended in divorce.
He worked as a bouncer in Unity, Ohio. Toughs from Ohio would come in five or six at a time to gang up on him. Once while he was outside with a group, the police arrived. Roy knocked the toughs out one by one, and as he knocked them out, the police picked them up and put them into the police van.
At this time he also took over the position of instructor at the martial arts school his father ran. He became very active at martial arts tournaments, winning each bout and bringing home many trophies.
Later, tensions were developing between Roy and Willie. Ona fateful night this culminated in a thirty minute martial arts fight at Roy's apartment in Monaca, PA ending in Willie's death. During the fight Roy's little daughter was in a back bedroom screaming and crying. The livingroom and dining room were smashed and bloody.
Roy was indicted for murder and tried in Beaver County Courts. While Roy was in his jail cell, Dave Palovich convinced him that Christ was missing in his life. Sitting in his jail cell, he felt an ineffable sense of peace and love sweep over him, taking him back to the feeling he had felt in the beautiful fields of flowers he had been in awe of in the Netherlands.
The trial lasted eight days and Roy was acquitted.