Download PDF of this full issue: v36n2.pdf (13.7 MB)

Michael Pahios, Rest in Peace

By Jim Dingman

Mike Pahios, a Vietnam Marine veteran, longtime member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founding member and first president of Veterans for Peace NYC Chapter 34, passed away in his sleep on August 8, 2006 from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.

Mike worked for many years for NBC television in their video department and had retired less than a year ago. He worked with the first seasons of the original Saturday Night Live, and for a time he shared an apartment with the comedian and actor Dan Akroyd.

He was active over the last ten years with the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence community action patrol. During the eighties, he was an active opponent of the Reagan wars in Central America. He traveled to Nicaragua several times as part of a VVAW delegation and with the Veterans' Peace Convoy. He also went to El Salvador as part of a Veterans Peace Action Team.

Mike was an admirer of Evans Carlson, the founder of the Marine Raiders in World War II, and he was a historian for the United States Marine Raider Association. He was able to communicate with people who did not see eye-to-eye with him politically and still remain friends.

Michael served in Vietnam with the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines. His unit was the first major Marine outfit that was sent to Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive after NLF/PAVN forces seized the city.

He enjoyed life, food, and cigars and relished his relationships with all people, especially the opposite sex. He loved to party, hang out, and explore everything around him. His good nature and sense of humor touched many of us. He will be greatly missed.

Michael Pahios: Presente!

Mike Pahios on prison farm near Managua, Nicaragua, April 1986.