Arizona XLII

 

As I have said before, Arizona is one of my most visited states. In looking over things to post, I realized I could spend an awful lot of time writing only about the memorials I have visited in the state.

Bisbee is one of my favorite cities in Arizona. It is quirky and interesting and beautiful and it is south of Tucson, only 12 miles from Mexico.

Last time I was there I visited Bisbee High School and saw the memorial to their 7 students who were lost in 'Nam. Between 1960 and 1970 Bisbee's population decreased from nearly 10,000 to a little more than 8,000. 7 just seems like a lot, to me, for such a small town.

Leonard Douglas Davis

Today, three of them: 

2LT Leonard Davis and his men attempted to recover the bodies of 4 of their comrades. Coming under intense machine gun fire and incoming mortars, LT Davis was lost on August 2, 1966 in the La Drang Valley.

Richard Allen Thursby

SSGT Richard Thursby was in the Gia Dinh Province when some kind of accident involving grenades took his, and two comrades, lives on April 1, 1969.

Leonard Carabeo

LCPL Leonard Carabeo was lost to small arms fire in Quang Tri Province little information is available. 

It is shocking to me that so little is available to honor these, mostly, young heroes.

He was lost on April 28, 1968

Next time, on October 9th, we will return to Arkansas, 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.

Alaska XIV

I've been to Alaska a couple of times for various reasons, but the changes in their memorial situation is a gratifying story. Check out the original posts concerning this here and here. 

As I have been doing lately, today I want to honor a few of the those lost from Alaska. These KIAs are from the Anchorage memorial.

Thomas Barr

Sp5 Thomas Barr was a Company Clerk. Read more about his heroism below.

 

LZ Baldy was an Americal Division fire support base located northwest of Chu Lai in Quang Nam Province, RVN. LZ Baldy was the field headquarters for the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 196th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division. It was heavily defended with 105mm and 155mm artillery, 106mm recoilless rifles, and numerous sandbagged perimeter bunkers. Around the compound, row upon row of barbed wire were infused with dozens of claymore mines. This massive defensive wall was supposed to keep the Americans at Baldy secure. Nevertheless, an attempt to overrun LZ Baldy occurred on May 12, 1969. There were three separate assaults beginning about 9:00 PM by local Viet Cong supported by a well-equipped North Vietnamese Regular Army reinforced-battalion. Twenty Viet Cong sappers were successful in penetrating the perimeter, many of whom reached the top of the mountain where the 523rd Signal Battalion’s VHF operations were located. Several of the Battalion’s personnel had to defend their radio operation which they were able to keep on the air all night. Elsewhere on the base, five Americans died keeping the attackers at bay. SP5 Thomas M. Barr, a company clerk, was killed by an enemy rocket which impacted behind him as he was lugging mortar rounds to the perimeter bunkers in need of more ammunition. Two members of the artillery battery, CWO Homer P. Kendrick and SP5 David A. Lefler, died in a friendly-fire incident when their bunker was hit by an errant rocket fired from a supporting American gunship. Several others were also wounded in the blast. And SGT Arthur E. Scott and SP4 Wendell A. Weston were killed after suffering fragmentation wounds from enemy rockets or mortars. Another 24 U.S. personnel were wounded during the assault. Two days later the Battalion chaplain went to LZ Baldy and held a small memorial service for the fallen defenders. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Bill Phillips (January 2019)Courtesy of Bill Phillips)

 

Richard G. Bauer

Sp5 Richard Bauer was a passenger on a chopper that was lost in a storm in 1969. 4 years later local tribesman discover the wreckage and reported it to the right people. Bauer's Mother could not believe that her son had actually been located and only after forensic proof removed all doubt was she able to accept this most terrible of Mother's nightmares.

 Gary Edwin Bullock

Sp4 Gary Bullock is the first KIA I have come across with my exact rank and MOS. I, too. was a "watercraft operator" for the Army in Vietnam.

Other than that there is very little information available about what happened to him. I saw one mention in a report that said "bunker collapse" on a off shore site. Nothing more. 

Ironically, I had a buddy from Alaska who was, also, a boat operator. I wonder how many from Alaska could have been the same?

Next time, on October 4th, we will return to Arizona, 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.

Next time, on October 4th, we will return to Arizona, 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.

Alabama XVIII

Autauga County Alabama lost 13 of her sons in Vietnam. The county courthouse honors them, and many other veterans, in Prattsville. As of the 2020 census the County has a population of about 58,000.

 

James E. Bouyer

 

Pfc. James Bouyer was lost n April 1, 1969 not long after arriving in 'nam. As tragic as all deaths are from 'nam, his was due to an accident. somehow seems like an even greater waste to me. 

Ronald G. Crowe

Pfc. Ronald Crowe was lost on June 11, 1969 when his fire base was overrun in a late night attack by the enemy. The next morning the attack was repelled but many had been lost.  

Samuel G. Crowell

 

Sp4 Samuel Crowell, like Pfc Bouyer above, was lost at Gia Dinh. They were not lost in the same action and Sp4 Crowell was lost to small arms fire. Little other info seems to be available.

Next time, on September 29th, we will return to Alaska, 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.

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!

Wisconsin XXIV

Wisconsin once again. I have been posting from the pictures that Joan sent me for quite some time now. I am eternally grateful to her for passing them along.

I have told the story of how she happened to find me and you can see that post here and several other post bearing her photos.

These pics, as are all the others, are pulled from a display that travels Wisconsin. So, you are viewing pictures of pictures that sometimes are not the best.

They are pictures, however, of the best America had to offer at the time and they deserve honor and our respect regardless of my abilities to present them at their best. 

Pfc Waschick entered Vietnam on January 6, 1968. On February 9th he was lost to multiple fragmentation wounds. He was just 18 years old.

Cpl Greenwood was lost on Hill 851 in Kartum Province om September 4, 1968. His platoon leader later credited him with "preventing the slaughter" of his fellow soldiers, he was lost to small arms fire near Dak Sum.

Cpl Schiesl was lost on March 24, 1969 at Quang Tri to light arms fire. I could not locate many facts about his service but I noted that he received, among others, a Bronze Star and a Unit Presidential Citation.

Again, my undying gratitude to Joan.

Next time, on September 19th, we will return to Wyoming, 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!

West Virginia XXII

 

My last few posts from Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia have focused on those from Morgantown High School, so I decided to try to find others deserving the same focus, attention, and admiration.

As stated in my post from Berkeley Springs, I wondered into town several days before the memorial was even dedicated almost exactly four years ago.. You can view that post here.

CPL Leland A. Bailey was lost on September 20, 1969 at Quang Nam. he is honored on the memorial in Berkeley Springs, WV but was originally from Baltimore, Maryland and is honored by that state, also. All that I can find is that he was lost to "other explosive device." 

Leland A. Bailey

Larry Monroe Clark

Sp4 Clark is listed on this memorial in Berkeley Springs, and is buried in WV.  I discovered while looking for additional information about him that he grew up in my county in Maryland. Not 15 minutes away from where I grew up. So, he is honored on our Wall, too. A Wall I helped build. Very odd feeling finding this out today. He was lost to small arms fire on February 2, 1968.

The third name I was going to write about today is Richard Morgan Johnson jr. He is listed among the seven said to have been lost in Vietnam on the monument in Berkeley Springs.

1Lt Richard M. Johnson jr.

I can find no trace of him on any site confirming this.

What I have found, repeatedly, is Richard Morgan Johnson jr killed in Korea in 1968. This solder is from the same area and I have not been able to solve the mystery.* 

I will continue to seek information and hopefully will clear this up.

If you know anything about this, please contact me at the email listed on the left side of this post. 

I will certainly update if I learn anything new.

Next time, on September 14th, we will return to Wisconsin, 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!

* I spoke this evening with Chuck Hempe. the man who brought the Berkeley springs Memorial to life. He assured me that 1LT Johnson was in fact lost in Korea in an incident at the DMZ and was included here as a son of Berkeley Springs and a 'Nam era soldier. 

Washington

Anacortes is located on Fidalgo Island and is easily accessible via bridges to the mainland. I have featured the memorial here before and you can see that post here.

The three from Anacortes who were lost are:  

Darwin Engman

WO1 Engman was piloting a chopper near Thanh Son when it was shot down. Several others were lost in the crash of from ground fire while trying to escape the chopper.  

Russell Hibler

SGT Russell Hibler was lost on March 30, 1970 to multiple fragmentation wounds. He was lost in the Thua Thien Province.

Gordon Logan

CPL Gordon W. Logan was a paratrooper who was lost on November 12, 1969 at Binh Dinh. On his VVMF page it specifies "other explosive device" without further explanation. I could find no other information about this hero. How very sad that is. 

Next time, on September 9th, we will return to West Virginia, 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!