Wyoming V

Wyoming is a state I must revisit. It seems to have the least posts of all my visits to the states.

As I was thinking about how I would approach writing another post, I noticed that Cheyenne, Wyoming lists their MIAs separately from the those who were lost or those who served. Most often, you see a name with a separate designation (like a star or as on any number of sites a plus sign that can be changed to whatever the KIA designation might hap[pen to be), but not usually a separate list.

Cheyenne memorial

 

So, I decided to highlight these truly lost soldiers.

There are several, so, today, I will highlight the first three. 

Harry B. Coen

I have seen Harry Coen listed as a Staff Sargent and a PFC. Don't have any idea as to which might be correct.

It doesn't matter. 

I read one article that quoted a comrade that stated. "one minute he was there and the next minute he was just gone." 

On VVMF's Wall of Faces, there is a long article about the events of that May in 1968.

You can read it here: 

https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/9647/HARRY-B-COEN/

He was three days from the end of his third tour. 
 

Orville Cooley

On January 16, 1968 Lt. Cooley was transporting visiting Senators when "due to previous rainfall which made the deck wet, upon break release, the aircraft drifted to the starboard, veering sharply to the port and striking the Fresnel lens installation as it continued over the port side, thus, crashing. There were seven survivors but unfortunately, Orville Cooley was not among those..."

Lawrence Evert

LTC Evert was shot down over North Vietnam on January 16, 1968, it was not until December 18, 2001 that he was found and repatriated to the U.S. He is the first repatriated MIA I have, knowingly, written about here.

Next time, on September 24th, we will return to Alabama, to honor others so worthy of our admiration and never ending respect. Join me there, at 9:00 am., as always.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos and join the group!