Idaho XI

 The small, outside, memorial in Nampa honors seven from the area.

Clustered in a natural setting it sits in The Veterans Peace Memorial Park just outside the Nampa City Hall. You can see a more complete post here.

A few of the names, and their faces.

Gerald Lee Baldwin

CPL Baldwin was lost on December 12th, 1968 at Nua Nghia. His records say that he was lost to "small arms fire" and was a "ground casualty." This is every thing I could find about him except some family information that included the names of his parents, sisters and and brothers. Nothing else.

A 20 year old man dies and just nothing. How many times have I lamented this?

Jess B. Boicourt

CPL Jess Boicourt was lost on March 11th, 1968 at Quang Tri. And, his information is even more lacking than some of the others I have mentioned.

Albaro Quezada Garcia

Sp4 Albaro Garcia was awarded, among others, two Bronze Star for for Valor and for Merit. I don't know if this means one B Star for two things or two B Stars. Help me out!! I am always happy to hear from anyone who can add to the story or straighten me out on something,

Also, he was mortally wounded in Cambodia ( you remember, that place we never were) but passed away in hospital back in 'Nam.

Next time, on December 2nd after a brief Thanksgiving wish on the 27th, we will return to Illinois 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. 

Hawai'i VII

So, today I am a bit behind schedule due to some unforeseen circumstances. I promised, previously, to write something about Hawai'i today and will give it a shot now.

On my two visits to our 50th state, I was able to find a few memorials that are posted elsewhere on the site. to check them out, just click Hawai'i from the list of states on the left side of the page.

I may well be back in this beautiful state in mid 2026 and, just maybe, I will be able to find additional memorials, but in the meantime, today, I will feature a couple of names from the magnificent memorial in Oahu.

Gideon Picha Johnson

SFC Gideon Johnson was lost at Thua Thein on January 31, 1968. He was a Paratrooper and a Medic. Assigned to the 101st Airborne unit he left behind a wife and at least one child. Little else is available.

Robert Kiyoshi Kawamura

SSGT Kawamura was born in California but buried at the Cemetery of The Pacific, commonly known as The Punchbowl. His plane was shot down on February 15, 1968. He "died while missing."                

Donald Marshall

SP4 Donald Marshall was on a "sweep" mission when his platoon was attacked by a far superior number of heavily armed Viet Cong. He was hit several times and was lost February 19th, 1968 at Binh Thuan.

It interest me that all three of todays lost heroes died in 1968. This is pure chance for me, but '68 was the year of the greatest loss of American forces.

I complain, again, about the poor quality of some of the photographs. My recollection is that all service members were photographed by the military during basic. Is this not so? Anyone out there able to correct my thinking? 

If not, why are not better pictures of these men and women available? Just seems disrespectful to me.

Next time on November 23rd, we will return to Idaho 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.

Veterans Day 2025

I know that I promised a post from Hawai'i, but opted, instead, to honor Veterans Day first. This will post at 11:11 am. to honor the signing of the Armistice ending WWI. November 11th was originally called Armistice Day, honoring that momentous event.

A Means to Heal actually attempts to both honor those who served and those who were lost. Many memorials around the country honor the lost and those still MIA but, over the years more and more sites go out of their way to honor all who served. If you browse this site (and I hope you do) you will find many memorials that actually do both. 

I try each year to come up with something fitting to pay tribute to all who served. 

Each year The Department of Veterans Affairs creates a new Veterans Day honors ALL WHO SERVED no matter when or where. Confusion still seems to exist concerning this. I am not sure why but it does. So, once again, Veterans Day honors all, Memorial Day honors those who paid the highest price for their country and Armed forces Day honors all who are serving.

Below is this years rendering. It was created by a vet, Jeremy D. Carpenter. I could do no better than this.

By the way, if you go to the Department of Veterans Affairs you can see older posters.

      WWW.VA.gov

 

Next time, on November 16th, we will return to Hawai'i, as previously promised, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

To see additional memorials from any state, please click a state name on the left side of this page. Please note that Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico have been added to the list.

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, Colleen from Pennsylvania, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

I hope this will encourage you to join the group and get your photos up on A Means to Heal.

Georgia XXV

In New Spalding, Georgia there is a roadside park with a number of memorials present. The names of thirteen fallen from 'Nam are listed along side heroes from the Korean war. 

You can see my original past from the site here.

Today, I will highlight a few of the fallen honored here.

James Terry Coggins

PFC James Coggins was lost to hostile small arms fire om June 28th, 1968. As is so often the case, I can find nothing else about this hero. There are several sites on-line that give basic information, but in fact, they all seem to say the same thing. 

It just feels like they deserve more,  

Willie Gene Gaddy

PFC Willie Gaddy took his buddy's place as point on a patrol. He was dead within hours. The friend survived the war and remembers him daily. As usual, little detail available.

Charles Wayne Hall

PFC Charles Hall was lost at Binh Dinh on November 7, 1968. He was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from the government of South Vietnam, but I can, as always, find no details about this.

I think I realized today why I choose to only include three names in these posts. It just makes me too sad ( not to mention angry) to think that we know so little about young men and women who gave up their lives in this war.

And we just move on.

Next time on November 16th, after a Veterans Day tribute on the 11th, we will return to Hawai'i 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.

Florida XXVIII

It is with the utmost pleasure that I return to my original project today, writing about actual memorials. I love highlighting some of the brave men and women who are honored at these sites, but my original idea was to share actual memorials with those who might not be able to travel to see them all. So, today, back to Florida and an actual Wall of names.

The last time I posted about Florida, I featured pictures from Peg and Ray who kindly forwarded dozens of shots from a large museum.

Central Florida Vietnam Veterans created the National Vietnam War Museum not too far from Orlando in 1982 and later renamed it for Cpl. Larry Smedley.

You can see that post here.

Today, a few pics of the Wall that features the names of a number of soldiers. There is no "key" to tell if these soldiers were lost, MIA or served, but every one of the several I checked were, in fact, KIA.

There is way more material here worth presenting and I will do so as time moves on. I could probably write a dozen posts just from the material Peg and Ray sent me. Thanks again!

Next time on November 8th, we will return to Georgia 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.