If it’s true that a picture’s worth a thousand words, it can also be true that other pictures can render one speechless.
Keith Mayle found one of those pictures in the strangest place.
“In the restroom,” Keith Mayle said.
Having served overseas from 1965 to 1969, Keith is a proud Vietnam Veteran. After coming home, he held various law enforcement positions in Northeast Ohio, including the Cleveland Police Detective Bureau. He’s lived a life of service since enlisting in the U.S. Air Force at the age of 19.
Now retired, Keith and his wife, Cindy, live a quiet life, with memories of that service never far away. Keith has photos from the Phan Rang Air Base, where he was stationed, but nothing from a particular day when the base hosted visitors from home. Bob Hope brought his entire show of entertainers, including Raquel Welch, in 1967.
Keith would tell friends and family he was there that day, but he never had proof to back it up until now.
They were eating lunch at Mission BBQ in Canton. Every wall of the restaurant is full of military photos and memories to honor veterans. Keith excused himself to use the restroom, and that’s where he found a missing piece to his puzzle.
“He says, ‘You’re not going to believe this’, and I said, ‘What?’, and he said, ‘There’s a picture in the restroom of Raquel Welch in Vietnam…’ he goes, ‘I was there… I was there,” Cindy Mayle said.
With the restaurant’s approval, Cindy entered the men’s room to confirm Keith's discovery.
“I’m like, ‘There you are right there’, and he looked at it, he goes, ‘Ah’… I said, ‘There!’, and he was like, ‘Oh my gosh!'“ Cindy Mayle said.
“I got excited because I could prove that I was there!” Keith Mayle said.
A photo of Raquel Welch entertaining troops 57 years ago brought memories of a special day flooding back to a hard-working veteran who says he found himself in that photo. What a day that day continues to be.
“Oh, yeah … You tell me: How can you forget that?" Keith Mayle said.
