Vernon Wike

1947 - 2023

Wike, Vernon
"Doc"
June 5, 1947 - January 26, 2023
Corpsman

Born in El Dorado, Kansas on June 5, 1947, Vernon Ralph Wike was the son of Virgil and Marjorie (Markee) Wike. He passed away at the Colorado State Veterans Home at Fitzsimons on January 26, 2023. He was preceded in death by both parents and both of his sons, Sean and Jedediah. He leaves his two sisters, Helen (Hull) Parker of Hays, Kansas; Virginia (Hull) Stricker of Lone Tree, Colorado; and three grandchildren, Jackson and Charlotte Wike of Rockland, MA and Joplin Wike of Connecticut.

Vern was raised in a difficult and sometimes abusive family but upon his eighteenth birthday joined the U.S. Navy and served as a Navy Corpsman with distinction in Vietnam. During the late 1960's he was pictured in Life magazine, Time magazine and People magazine treating wounded Marines during the battle for Khe Sanh. To those he served with and those whose lives he saved, he was a hero. As a result of the action that he saw in Vietnam, he developed an arthritic hip problem and eventually returned to the United States where he received his discharge and eventual 100% disability for his hip condition and PTSD.

While flashbacks and PTSD remained with him for many years, Vern had a "heart of gold" and would go to extremes to assist others that needed his assistance. He worked for some years as a respiratory therapist prior to receiving his disability determination, and continued to display the kind of care to his patients that he had to his Marine comrades in Vietnam. He lived for many years in Prescott, Arizona before his home burned down shortly before he had a severe stroke.

Following recovery from his stoke, he lived with his sister, Virginia (Hull) Stricker and her husband, first in Ankeny, Iowa before moving to Parker, Colorado in 2010. He entered the Veterans Home at Fitzsimons in 2015 where he lived until his death.