Illinois XX

Wabash (Vietnam Veterans) Plaza, Chicago, Illinois

2936 were lost in Vietnam from Illinois. Other sites dispute this number, but as I have said before, it depends upon whom you are including in that count.

I was in Springfield at the Illinois State Memorial memorial there (quite some years ago now) and the guy in charge told me they had recently (at the time) added the name of a guy who had been in a coma for thirty years. So, numbers are disputed, change over time and it makes me wonder if we will ever have an accurate accounting of the price that was paid?

To recall John Kerry, "Who will be the last to die?

All of that aside, today I will honor a few from Illinois.

Lyle Francis Kell

 CPL Lyle Kell was lost on December2, 1969. He gave all at Binh Duong and was lost as a "ground casualty" to "other explosive device."

Conrad Thomas Lange

LCPL Conrad Lange was in the Dong Nam Province on June 9th, 1967. Like CPL Kell above, he, too, was lost to "other explosive device." He and another solder were killed by booby trapped artillery shells.

Thomas John Mead

PFC Thomas Mead was lost to "accidental homicide" in the Thua Thien Province. He was lost on June 6th, 1969. It turns out that "accidental homicide" occurs when two groups of allied solders get in a fight and start shooting at each other. Two RF (regional forces) members were charged with the homicide but the 5 judge committee declined to convict. One of the two was later killed in battle.

All of these are from Wood Dale, Illinois.

Next time, on September 20th, join me in Indiana. See you, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you have been 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 (several times now), Colleen from Pennsylvania (now three times!) Elli from Maryland and Peg and Ray from Florida (more than once!), among others have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or from where you have traveled. I even got one from Ireland!

These generous submissions have help to expand the knowledge of how we remember and honor the men and women who served in or were lost in Vietnam.

If YOU have any such photos or knowledge about these memorials and sites not already here, I would love to know of them. Please send them along to the email address on the left side of this page and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all these listed here will encourage YOU to send along photos and join the group.

Illinois XIX

I have spent some time over the years telling you about Havana, Illinois. It is unique as it is the only place I've been that has a store front with framed pictures of so many of the lost from the area. The last time I checked, the store was out of business and no one could tell me what happened to the guy who created the display or what had happened to the many photos.

You can see some of those pictures here.

Today, a few of the lost actually from the town of Havana.

James Azbell

Sp4 Azbell was lost on  February 23, 1969 at Dau Tieng. Below his his Silver Star Citation:

"The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918 (amended by an act of July 25, 1963), takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Specialist Fourth Class James Allen Azbell (ASN: US-56591925), United States Army, for gallantry in action. Specialist Fourth Class Azbell distinguished himself by heroic actions on 23 February 1969, while serving as a radio-telephone operator with Company D, 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, in the Republic of Vietnam. While Company D was established in the Dau Tieng Base Camp, the installation came under an intense attack from a numerically superior hostile force. During the initial contact, Company D sustained several casualties. Specialist Azbell immediately administered life saving first aid to several wounded men and evacuated them to a relatively secure position. When the insurgents overran and occupied one of the bunkers on the perimeter, Specialist Azbell, with complete disregard for his own safety, exposed himself to the holocaust of exploding projectiles as he assaulted the enemy held fortification. As Specialist Azbell placed devastating fire on the hostile forces, he was fatally wounded. His valorous actions were responsible for saving several lives and the eventual defeat of the hostile force. Specialist Azbell's personal bravery, aggressiveness, and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, the 25th Infantry Division, and the United States Army. General Orders: Headquarters, 25th Infantry Division, General Orders No. 2999 (March 10, 1969)"

CWO John Frederick

John Frederick was interned as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam after he was captured on December 7, 1965, and until he died in captivity on or about July 19, 1972. In his personnel file at NPRC, his Navy Cross citation is actually written as a Medal of Honor citation, indicating that he was originally submitted and considered for our Nation's highest award. His is one of the Marine Corps' most highly decorated Warrant Officers in history. His remains were recovered and returned on March 13, 1974.

Larry Ladd

Sp4 Larry Ladd was lost on June 19, 1970. He was lost in Cambodia setting up explosive defensive devices when attack by hostiles.

You may note that this is the second hero lost in that place we "never were..." that I have mentioned in the last couple of posts.

Next time, on December 7th. we will return to Indiana and additional faces to honor, so join me there, as usual  at 9:00 am. 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. 

Illinois XVIII

It is with a somewhat heavy heart that I return to Havana, Illinois today.

I had hoped to identify each of these vets and perhaps share a bit about them.

As you can see in the second picture, his name is impossible to read and after quite a bit of searching, I was able to track down the actual window and the name of the store featuring him and so many others.

I called only to discover that the business no longer exists.

As always, I will ask if any of you readers can positively identify him, I would love to honor his memory here. Please let me know at the email on the left side of this page 

This window is unique in my travels and experience. You can read more about it in a previous post that you can see here.

I am posting this picture again because I found out that he is actually the only hero from Havana lost in Nam. Killed, as you will note, in Cambodia: a place where we denied we were for many years.

Next time, on the 16th of April, we will venture, once again to Kentucky so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

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.

Illinois XVII

So, as you can see if you follow along on this journey, I am still searching through files trying to find something to share with you. As I do this, I am reinforced in the thought that I really must find a means to get past my concern about airports. I have no real issues anymore about hotels and I am convinced that the airlines are doing a good job of keeping the planes safe, but I've found no way to determine what the actual airports are doing. I remain concerned. 

All of this is by way of explaining why so many of my recent posts have been in the Faces of Remembrance series. I am running out of posts about memorials. I have a few left from a few states but overall my cache is running low.

Today's faces come from Havana, Illinois. They are etchings on the memorial there which you can take a look at here. It is interesting to me that they are directly across the street from the shop window display of so many faces in actual photographs from Mason County, You can see some of them here.

Even in these caricatures one can see the resignation, fatigue, and sadness of these, who represent us all.

Next time we will revisit Louisiana to see additional Faces from a couple of different memorials. So, join me, at 9:00am on the 8th, to honor our valiant comrades.

Tomorrow is Independence Day, so along with cook-outs, parades, and fireworks, take just a moment to remember those who have fought and died to retain our independence.

To see additional memorials from Illinois, or any other state, please click on the state name on the left side of this page.

I will ask, as I do at the end of nearly every post now, for anyone who has pictures of Vietnam memorials not seen here to please send them to me. I will give you full photo credit for the pic and any information about it you may know. Check your state, or anywhere you may have visited, from the list at the left.

Illinois XVI

So, even a different view of faces. In this Faces of Remembrance series I have tried to show the different looks I have seen given to the statues I've found as I travel. Last time I showed some faces of vets and others seen at the dedication of the memorial in Honolulu. 

Then while once again searching my photos I came across these faces. These are unusual as they are faces of lost vets, but from a happier time. I guess they might be from their Basic training graduations.

I found them when I visited Havana, Illinois to photograph the memorial there. Across the street from the park where the memorial is, there was a storefront. the guy that owned it filled the display window with patriotic stuff and the pictures of many of the soldiers whose names were engraved upon the stone across the street.

 

 

These photos were taken through the glass of the display window, so, perhaps not the very best. However, any effort to recognize and honor our brothers and sisters, I applaud.

I have asked the site for additional information about these guys and will update if I hear back from them.

I will ask, at the end of every post now, for anyone who has pictures of Vietnam memorials not seen here to please send them to me. I will give you full photo credit for the pic and any information about it you may know. Check your state from the lost at the left.

Next time, on March 5th, we will make a return trip to Iowa, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Illinois, or any other state, please click on the state name on the left side of this page.

Illinois XV

Rankin, Illinois is a village in the Butler Township due south of Chicago about 100 miles or so.

In 1996 the folks who live there decided they wanted to build a memorial to all who had served from the Civil War forward.

 700 names are listed with no designation of when or in which war they might have served.

Those lost are designated by a small mark next to their names.

Just in front of the memorial is this stone, now difficult to read, acknowledging many of the individuals and groups that helped this memorial become a reality.

An interesting aside is that there are more names on this memorial than actually live in the village at this time, 700 vs 612.

The memorial may be found on Main Street in Rankin, not too far from the Post Office.

Next time on,  February 3rd, we will return to Indiana, so join me there at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Illinois, or any other state, please click the state name on the left side of this page.

Illinois XIV

I know that last time I said we would be in Louisiana today, but I ran across this small memorial in Virginia, Illinois and thought I would share it. We will move on to Louisiana, next time.

I was just driving, headed somewhere else, when we came upon this one, yes, my lifelong buddy, Steve, was with me on this trip.

It isn't huge, it lists no names and is dedicated to the lost of more than one war, but as I have said before, this is often the way of small towns. many just do not have the resources to build new memorials to every war we seem to get involved in. The 2010 census counts 1611 in this city 30 miles northwest of Springfield.

This one is located on the N.E. corner of the Court House lawn at S. Main and E.Springfield Streets.

I was not able to discover just how many were lost from Cass County, but I did find that two from Virginia are among them.

So, next time , on the 25th we will check out Louisiana once again, so join me there, as always, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Illinois, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.

Illinois XIII

Danville, IL. is in Vermilion County and they have recognized those lost in Korea and Vietnam.

Each of the two panels depicts a scene from their respective war and all the names of those lost are listed, by town, below.

Located on N. Hazel Street, it remembers the 25 lost from Vietnam.

The numbers in front of the names corresponds with the key to individual cities listed below. This is something I have never run across before.

The central stone proclaims the following dedication.

Next time, we will revisit Indiana, so join me there at 9:00am, on September 2nd.

To see other memorials from Illinois, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.

Illinois XII

This small, yet, elegant marker is in a public park in downtown Wheaton, Illinois. Located at the corner of Karlskoga Ave. and Hale Street, it is easily found and entered through its beautiful gate.

Fourteen of Wheaton's best are honored here.

Their names are not listed upon the marker, so I have included them for you. If you click on a name you will be taken to a page with more info about the soldier.

ANDERSON, GREGORY BLASEN, RICHARD DONNAL, JOHN GIBSON, DONALD GREGOIRE, JOHN GUSTAFSON, EDWARD KNABB, KENNETH KOCH, FRANKLIN ODOM, VERN OLSEN, FLOYD POOLER, JOHN VAN, DUYN VANDEN, EYKEL

There was next to no information available about this memorial and, as always, I would love to hear from someone who knows anything about it. There is an email on the left side of this page so let me hear from you about this site or any of the others sites on the blog, I like to know you are out there!

Next time, on the 18th, join me at 9:00am, when we will revisit Indiana.

To see other sites from Illinois, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.