West Virginia XXIII

West Virginia as I am sure I have mentioned before has the distinction of being the state that lost more of its young men, per capita, than any other state.

Today, just a few representatives of these brave warriors.

John B. Durst

SP4 John Durst was killed by an RPG in the Binh Duong Province on May 31, 1968.

Dennis Elwood McDonald

PFC Dennis McDonald was lost on May 14, 1968, in Binh Duong province.

Rex Marcel Sherman

CPL Rex Sherman was lost on November 19, 1969, during a confrontation with enemy forces. His actions and bravery resulted in his being awarded The Silver Star for valor. The citation read as follows:

"AWARDS AND CITATIONS

Silver Star

Awarded for actions during the Vietnam War

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Corporal [then Private First Class] Rex Marcel Sherman, United States Army, for gallantry in action. Private First Class Sherman distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions while engaged in military operations against an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam on 19 November 1969, while serving as a senior observer for a Ranger patrol with Company C (Ranger), 75th Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate). On that date; Private Sherman's team effected an ambush of approximately thirty enemy soldiers, killing eight of them out right. The remaining enemy began delivering a hail of small arms and automatic fire on the team, threatening to overrun the friendly position. At one point during the contact, the enemy attempted to overrun the patrol from the rear by utilizing a human wave attack. Private Sherman, with complete disregard for his own safety, exposed himself to the assault, enabling the team to thwart the charge. He then maneuvered his team into a position where they could lay down an effective base of fire on enemy positions while Private Sherman unhesitatingly left the relative security of his team to recover enemy weapons and documents from the dead enemy soldiers in the area, withstanding withering hostile fire as he proceeded. As supporting elements began arriving, Private Sherman dashed across a nearby clearing attempting to deliver the captured documents and weapons to a waiting helicopter but was mortally wounded by enemy fire. Private First-Class Sherman's heroic devotion to duty unswerving determination in the face of a numerically superior enemy force were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and United States Army.

General Orders: Headquarters, I Field Force Vietnam, General Orders No. 15 (January 7, 1970)

Action Date: November 19, 1969"

He was lost at Bien Thuan

Next time, on July 7th, we will return to Wisconsin, so join me, as always, at 9 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 (now three) 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. 

West Virginia XXI

So, this post will exhaust my faces from Morgantown High School. There are seventeen in all and these are the last two.

Each of them "gave all" for their country and represent, here, all from west Virginia. West Virginia lost the most, per capita, of any state and their efforts will always be honored by A Means to Heal and hopefully all who see these pages: and all others.

One of West Virginia's 9 Medal of Honor recipients is among these seventeen and he can be seen here in one of the several posts from this site.

 

Next time, on the 31st, we will return to Wisconsin, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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 and Molly from Florida 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 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. Thanks, once again, to all who have contributed.

West Virginia XX

Morgantown, as I have mentioned before, has a number of their lost heroes honored at the local high school. Eighteen of Morgantown High School's classmates bracket a flagpole and "Wall" seen elsewhere on this site.

In Case it has slipped by unmentioned, West Virginia  has the highest percentage of loss per capita of any state.

Today, I will honor several more of the group whose tribute is featured on the school grounds.

These men among the others here and elsewhere deserve our respect and to be remembered for all time

Next tune, on the 21st, we will return to Wisconsin, so join me there, as always, at 9:00 am. to honor more from their traveling memorial.

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

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served 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.

West Virginia XIX

Another visit to Morgantown HS in West Virginia. I have been featuring the photos of the young men lost as actual photographs on memorials is actually quite rare. Once I featured one set, it seemed only right to honor them all.

There are eighteen faces on this memorial, so there will be a couple more of these posts in the future.

Two days after his 20th birthday

These men and so many others must not be forgotten. It is said that as long as someone speaks your name, you are never gone.

Speak their names!

Next time, on the 12th, we will travel back to Wisconsin to honor some additional faces from another unusual memorial. So, join me there, as always, at 9:00 am.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, or any other state, please click a 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, or any place else for that matter. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks.

West Virginia XVIII

We will visit Morgantown HS in West Virginia again today and often until I can honor all of the men remembered here. As I have mentioned before, West Virginia lost more soldiers, per capita, then any other state and they deserve to be paid tribute.

It is unusual for a memorial to feature the pictures of all those honored and I would like to take advantage of the fact that Morgantown has opted to do just that.

This, of course, fits right into my sub-group: Faces of Remembrance.

So, as we head into a season of other distractions, take just a moment to remember these men and all the others whose families will experience another season without them.

R.I.P. brothers and sisters, you will live in our hearts forever.

Next time, on the 23rd, I will post some non-memorial pics to hopefully lighten the season (and to, once again, remind myself (and you) that I do other photography.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, or any other state, please click on a 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, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks

West Virginia XVII

Just a brief visit today, back to Morgantown High School in West Virginia. These faces from the memorial on the grounds of the school are only a few of those remembered here. Others will follow in future posts.

 

1LT Ross and I were born in the same month and served in 'Nam at the same time. It is a little funny the details I notice while doing this work. 

I am writing this in the early hours of the morning before I go to my PTSD group at the local Vet Center. these photos and those they honor are a reminder that others paid a far larger debt than I was asked to pay.

Rest in Peace, brothers.

Next time, on the 21st we will revisit Wisconsin where a reader has kindly sent photos from a memorial there.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, 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, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks.

West Virginia XVI

A few months ago, I shared a memorial at Morgantown High School in Morgantown, West Virginia.

West Virginia as you may know had the highest loss rate, per-capita, of any state in the Vietnam war. This got me thinking about how the percentages from Morgantown High School compare.

West Virginia lost 1182 of the 36,578 men and women sent to 'Nam.

18 of these went to Morgantown High School. Somewhere out there, there is a math person who can tell the significance of these numbers, I hope you will tell us. I could not find info on school enrollment for all of the years we were in "Nam, but the numbers I did find seem to indicate that the population was roughly 3,000 students per year in at least the latter years of the war. Exactly how to extrapolate those numbers is out of my league, so, as I said, help me out.

Today, I will simply feature the faces of a few of the eighteen heroes.

Sp4 Spencer III remains MIA

These three were chosen in no particular order and for no special reason other than that they deserve to be remembered and honored. I will choose others in the future.

Next time, on the 18th, we will revisit Wisconsin, so meet me there as always, at 9:00am.

Morgantown High School is located at 109 Wilson Ave.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, 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, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks.

West Virginia XV

On my last trip to the Morgantown area I was able to get to the high school and check out a memorial there to the young men from the school who gave all in Vietnam.

I was wondering around the grounds and eventually ran into a teacher who went well out of his way to help me track down what turned out to be a really great memorial.

Even though it is right out in the open it is somewhat camouflaged by bushes growing around it. I most likely would have found it, or at least stumbled over it myself, but the teacher's help was greatly appreciated.

He told me about the staff member who was primarily responsible for the memorial, but who was not there at the time. I left my card in the hope that he might contact me, but I never did hear from him.

The memorial consists of two parts: a black granite (?) Wall and two separate stands with the pictures of each of the valiant young men and some info about each.

Today, I will share The Wall honoring the 18 young men and post their pictures at a later time.

Next time, on the 20th, we will revisit Wisconsin, so meet me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, 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, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks!

West Virginia XIV

Back in 2013 I wrote about visiting Morgantown West Virginia and the series of small memorials to several engagements there. Recently, I was in the area once again and saw something about a plaque on a building downtown. I decided to check it out.

It turns out that it was the same location, it has just been revamped and updated. You can check out the 2013 post here.

 

Several wars are remembered here and as a point of interest, the blue strip on the plaza represents the Monongahela River (note the spelling difference between the county and the river) that runs through the area.

        

It is interesting just how little information I can find on this memorial. So, as I do fairly often on this site, I will ask your assistance. If you have any info as to the story of this site, when and why it was changed, etc., I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at the email ion the left side of the page.

Next time, on the 11th, we will revisit Alaska, so join me there, as always, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from West Virginia, or any other state, please click the state name on the left side of the 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, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks!

West Virginia XIII

The West Virginia Vietnam memorial is in Charleston, the Capitol. It is part of a larger memorial to the several 20th century wars and each has a statue of a representative soldier.

West Virginia, per capita, lost more citizens than any other state in 'Nam and more than 36,000 served and according to the latest numbers I can find 1128 were lost. A number that is much  higher than when I first wrote about West Virginia, at that time it was said to be 762.

This face represents and honors them all.

Next time, on the 19th, we will revisit Wisconsin, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

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

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 list at the left.

West Virginia XII

This memorial surely qualities as America's newest. It is so new that it will not even be dedicated until September 18th. (at 2pm should you be in the area)

I have been in contact with the folks behind it for at least a couple of years and recently they informed me of the upcoming ceremony. I hope to be there.

However, I was in the Berkeley Springs area a week or two back and decided to check it out before the crowds show up.

It sits on a median strip to the right of the Morgan County Courthouse with other war memorials.

On the from panel are listed the seven who perished along with those who served.

On the left side of the memorial are listed those who served during the Vietnam Era.

 

On the right side are listed those who moved to Morgan County after serving.

On the obverse is a poem by Mr. Hampe. The Hampes were instrumental in getting the memorial built, a project of nearly ten years.

Next time, on the 2nd of September, we will return to California, so meet me there at 9:00am.

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

West Virginia XI

Traveling through West Virginia recently I ventured into Shepherdstown, the first city in the state established in 1734.

Along German Street at King is the War Memorial Bldg which for about 80 years was a church.

Built in 1868 it was sold to the Men's Club who spent many years and much money restoring it after they purchased it in 1948. It is now a venue for many activities and meetings.

 

The memorial here is a multi-war honoring those from Shepherdstown lost in our Twentieth Century Wars.

 

I have mixed feelings about what was done here. The lone name seems to be almost an after thought, tacked on wherever they could find space, but honored after all.

 

 

Regardless of that, I am pleased that he has been honored and taken his place among the other heroes from Shepherdstown. R.I.P. brother.

Next time, on the 21st, we will trek back to Alaska, so join me there, as always,at 9:00am.

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

West Virginia X

So, I made it to West Virginia recently as it is a relatively easy drive from where I live, no airplanes, no hotels. I went to a place called Capon Bridge.

West Virginia interests me because it had the greatest number of losses in Vietnam, per capita, of any state and yet I have had the most difficult time tracking down memorials to these men and women.

However, I have located this one and it is unique I think. There is a lot of poetry associated with Vietnam, with war in general and while I am sure that it is all sincere, heartfelt and deeply meaningful to those who wrote it, it is also mostly pretty bad. Maybe that's the nature of trying to write beautiful words about horrible things.

 

Now, having taken the chance on saying that, I want to add that I think this is not bad. In particular the line "song of death" well, that's just good!

 

The sentiments here. written 50 years ago or more. seem especially meaningful today.

The soldiers standing guard seem to represent the wars of West Virginia. One must remember that what is now the state at one time was part of Virginia, but broke off because it did not want to succeed from the Union, so the Union soldier here represents the first war for the state and all the rest of his companions followed. 

 

The memorial is located on Legion Street just off Cold Stream Road.

Next time, on the16th we will be as far from West Virginia as you can get. Meet me in Alaska, as always, at 9:00am.

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

West Virginia IX

About 22 miles south of Frostburg, Maryland is Keyser, West Virginia and at the Mineral County Courthouse you will find this memorial to 80 from the county who gave their all to our county's wars.

Thirteen of these were lost in Vietnam.

I have read that a man from the area disputes these numbers as far too low and is attempting to collect additional data. It will be interesting to see just what he finds.

Next time, on the 3rd of August, we will make a return trip to Alaska, so meet me there at 9:00am.

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

West Virginia IX

Harper's Ferry West Virginia certainly has its rightful place in history and millions upon millions have visited this storied town. I wonder how many have ventured just a little bit down West Washington Street and seen this memorial on the lawn of the Harper's Ferry Middle school?

Dedicated to all who have served in our wars the memorial stones display the insignias of the five services plus the Merchant Marine, a service not always represented.

Near by is this glass enclosed case with the stories of some of Jefferson County's heroes.

In addition to these local heroes the names of those lost are listed, too from 'Nam and the other 20th century wars.

West Virginia, as I have probably mentioned before, lost more citizens per capita than any other state.

Next time, on the 24th, we will return to Arizona. Join me there, as always, at 9:00am.

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