Johnson County Missouri War Memorial Courthouse SquareCompiled by Bruce Uhler
Johnson County Courthouse Square Memorial to Fallen Soldiers.
Remember all our servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives, in all wars, on this Memorial Day Weekend. Here are those making the ultimate sacrifice from Johnson County, from World War I to present. Cemper, Bowman, Cox, Hirni, Arnold, Bright, Coffman, Morley, Welch, Hunter and Raber. Without pictures, Korean War casualties, Faulconer, Jackson, Hopkins. World II Casualties listed on two pictures. Casualties
WARREN B. ADAMS - Johnson, MO (S SG) WWII
NORMAN E. ALLEY - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
OTIS K. ANDES - Johnson, MO (2 LT) WWII
HUBERT B. BAYLESS - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
EUGENE T. BRADSHAW - Johnson, MO (1 LT) WWII
JAMES C. BRADSHAW - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
ROBERT N. BROOKS - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
ROBERT BRUNOW - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
ASA BURLINGAME - Johnson, MO (1 LT) WWII
RALPH M. BURR - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
EARL CALDWELL JR - Johnson, MO (S SG) WWII
MARION H. COLSTER - Johnson, MO (CPL) WWII
WILLIAM H. CRAMER - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
RUSSELL LEVAN CRAWFORD - Johnson, MO (SEAMAN SECOND CLASS) WWII
LELAND W. CRUMBAUGH - Johnson, MO (2 LT) WWII
CHESTER L. DESHURLEY - Johnson, MO (FL O) WWII
GEORGE W. DIEMER - Johnson, MO (1LT) WWII
DAVID R. EPPRIGHT - Johnson, MO (2 LT) WWII
ADRIAN L. FORD - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
JOHN GRAY JR - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
WILLIAM H. GREEN - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
EMERY I. HANCOCK - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
MARVIN L. HAYHURST - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
Killed in action in the battle of St Lo in France in WWII. July 24, 1944 Private, U S Army 37242685, 47th Infantry regiment, 9th Infantry Division. Entered service in Missouri. Died: July 24, 1944. Buried at: Plot D Row 4 Grave 15, Normandy American Cemetery. St. Laurent-sur-Mer,France. Awards: Purple Heart
More About Marvin Lee Hayhurst: Burial: Unknown, Plot D Row 4 Grave 15 Normandy American, Cemetery.
EDWIN O. JENNINGS - Johnson, MO (SGT) WWII
ELMER R. JUDD - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII https://www.findagrave.com/.../52841090/elmer-raymond-judd
MARSHALL R. LOCKARD - Johnson, MO (CWO) WWII
FRANK E. LUVIN - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
JAY W. MARTIN - Johnson, MO (CPL) WWII http://www.93rdbombardmentgroup.com/rollhonor.html
GLEN F. MCCLUNEY - Johnson, MO (TEC5) WWII
WALTER C. MCKAY - Johnson, MO (CPL) WWII
C. L. MCMURPHY JR - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
THOMAS DERVUS NIXON - Johnson, MO (ENSIGN) WWII
Jesse Allen Paddack. Johnson County. 327th Medical Battalion, Army. July 15, 1922 - April 9, 1945. WWII
MARION C. PARMLEY - Johnson, MO (S SG) WWII
CHARLES A. PETTY - Johnson, MO (2 LT) WWII
EMERY J. PHIPPS - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
VICTOR S. PRYOR - Johnson, MO (S SG) WWII
PAUL H. QUICK - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
GEORGE R. RAKER - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
LYNN G. RAMSEY - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
SORREN G. RENFRO - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
JAMES L. RIDDLE - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
ROBERT A. STAPLETON - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
ROY E. STOUT - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
CHARLES K. TALLEY - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
LEON L. TEMPEL - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
ETHMER WEST - Johnson, MO (CPL) WWII
JERRY E. WILEY - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
WILEY WINFREY - Johnson, MO (PFC) WWII
CHESTER D. WONDERLY - Johnson, MO (SGT) WWII
MORRIS E. WOOD - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
WILLIAM C. WRIGHT - Johnson, MO (PVT) WWII
RICHARD T. YODER - Johnson, MO (2 LT) WWII
WILLIAM NICHOLAS ZINK - Johnson, MO (FIREMAN SECOND CLASS) WWII
please let me know if any name is missing. Thank you.
Missing from the memorial are Johnson County residents:
Ray E. Stewart who died of wounds received in combat in Thiacort, France, Sept. 29, 1918
Elmer R Judd, born in Burtville, KIA Philippines March 11, 1945. Private Elmer R. Judd (ASN: 37748607), United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star (posthumously) for gallantry in action while serving with the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
Wm. S. Adams, who died in Germany in Oct. 1944. Pvt. Adams was in a 35 ton Sherman tank that went up against an 85 ton Panzer Tiger on German soil. His body was returned home and his grave is at the Adams Cemetery. Pvt. Stewart's grave is in France very near where he fell.
David A. Gilliland - MO (21) Gulf War
Name: Gilliland, David A.
Service Branch: Navy
Rank: Boiler Technician
Age: 21
Hostile: "killed, Non-Hostile"
Home of Record City: Warrensburg
Home of Record County: Johnson
Home of Record State: Missouri
Conflict: Persian Gulf War
Thank you for your sacrifice.
Missing are Johnson County residents, Ray E. Stewart who died of wounds received in combat in Thiacort, France, Sept. 29, 1918, and Wm. S. Adams, who died in Germany Oct. 1944. Pvt. Adams was in a 35 ton Sherman tank that went up against an 85 ton Panzer Tiger on German soil. His body was returned home and his grave is at the Adams Cemetery. Pvt. Stewart's grave is in France very near where he fell. Sgt Arthur Beam of Knob Noster
Korean War Born in Johnson County, Missouri
JACKSON FLOYD J R ARMY CPL 19300228
UNKNOWN JOHNSON 19501212 N
Floyd J R Jackson
From Johnson
County, Missouri
Casualty Date December 12, 1950
War Korean
War
Service Branch Army
Rank Corporal
Specialty Light Weapons Infantryman
Unit/Group Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th
Infantry Division
Casualty Type Captured, Died, Nonbattle
Location North Korea, Battle of Chosin Reservoir
Burial Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial
Notable Awards
★ Prisoner of War Medal
FAULCONER FLOYD N ARMY CPL 19270000
UNKNOWN JOHNSON 19510214 Y
Floyd Nathan Faulconer
BIRTH
8 Feb 1927
DEATH
14 Feb 1951 (aged 24)
BURIAL
Mount Zion Cemetery
Dunksburg, Johnson County, Missouri,
Corporal Faulconer was a member of
the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division and was killed in action
while fighting the enemy near Chipyong-ni, South Korea on February 14, 1951.
He was awarded the Purple Heart, The
Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations
Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit
Cation, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
HOPKINS JAMES R ARMY PVT 19280000
UNKNOWN JOHNSON 19510827 Y
Name James
R Hopkins
From Johnson
County, Missouri
Casualty Date August 27, 1951
War Korean
War
Service Branch Army
Rank Private
E-2
Specialty Light Weapons Infantryman
Unit/Group 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division
Casualty Type Killed in Action
Location North Korea
James R. Hopkins, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Orion D. Hopkins, 3842A Shenandoah Avenue, was killed in action in Korea
Aug. 27, 12 days after he landed, the Defense Department announced today. Pvt.
Hopkins, whose wife, Mrs. Peggy Ellen Hopkins, lives in Murphysboro, il.,
arrived in Korea Aug. 15 his twenty-third birthday he wrote his parents.
His last letter was dated Aug. 25
from Yangu. In it he wrote: "We are just 'sitting on a hill, waiting for
the enemy." A steamfitter. Pvt. Hopkins was drafted Into the Army Dec. 15,
1950.
Notable Awards
★ Purple Heart
Vietnam War - From Johnson County, MO
A half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall funded by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) was in Warrensburg June 29-July 2, 2017 hosted by UCM McClure Archives and University Museum.
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| PFC Ronald Leon Bowman, Warrensburg, MO |
PFC Ronald Leon Bowman http://www.virtualwall.org/db/BowmanRL01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1966
Last Known Activity-A wireman, he was probably carrying a radio when he was killed with 15 others in a cave complex on Razorback Ridge.
Casualty Date - Aug 23, 1966
Cause: Hostile, Died Reason Multiple Fragmentation Wounds
Location - Quang Tri Conflict
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase II Campaign (1966-67)/Operation Prairie
Location of Interment
Maplewood Cemetery - Exeter, Missouri Wall/Plot Coordinates
10E line 028
Last Known Activity-A wireman, he was probably carrying a radio when he was killed with 15 others in a cave complex on Razorback Ridge.
Casualty Date - Aug 23, 1966
Cause: Hostile, Died Reason Multiple Fragmentation Wounds
Location - Quang Tri Conflict
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase II Campaign (1966-67)/Operation Prairie
Location of Interment
Maplewood Cemetery - Exeter, Missouri Wall/Plot Coordinates
10E line 028
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| SP4 Thomas Bright, Jr. |
| THOMAS BRIGHT JR: | |||
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"I was with you when you gave your life. we met in December 1968 and fought side by side. Even though it has been 38 years I have never forgotten you. God be with you."Jim Bousquet
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| SFC Martin Cox |
Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1966
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Video Link Bob Hope Visits Camp Martin Cox
SFC Martin Cox, Warrensburg, MO
Camp Martin Cox, Named for SFC Martin Cox, KIA, Warrensburg, Missouri
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| SFC Martin Cox, KIA, Warrensburg, Missouri Martin Cox Killed In Vietnam Action
Word of the death of a former local women's husband while serving in Viet Nam with the Big Red One 1st Infantry division was received here Thursday night. Death of SFC Martin Cox 38, in action Wednesday night was reported by an Army Officer Thursday to his wife, the former Miss Emma Hilderbrand, who has been living with her husband's parents in Knob Noster, MO. She is the daughter of Mrs. Evelyn Hilderbrand of 411 Pence Street. Her brother, Sgt. Charles Hilderbrand is serving in Viet Nam with the 1st Infantry also and his wife, Mrs. Edna Lentz Hilderbrand is living at Taylorsville, north of here.
Sergeant First Class Cox who was completing 19 years in service was due to complete his tour of duty in Viet Nam in 45 days when he was killed in action. He received his promotion to SFC only last week. No details of his death were learned. Sergeant and Mrs. Cox are parents of six children, Kathy 11, Jay 9, Marty 6, Vivian 4 1/2, Jimmy 2, and Donnie who was two months old on Tuesday.
(Thank you SFC Cox, you are a hero)
Camp Bearcat - Camp Martin Cox, Vietnam
Camp Bearcat / Camp Martin Cox
Sgt. Harold Hunter, Warrensburg, MO
Sgt. Harold Hunter, Warrensburg, MO KIA
January 27, 1969
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Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1969 Harold Henry Hunter
Sergeant
PERSONAL DATA
Home of Record: Warrensburg, MO
Date of birth: 03/17/1945
This whole page © Copyright 1997-2012 www.VirtualWall.org, Ltd.
MILITARY DATA
Service: Army of the United States
Grade at loss: E5
Rank: Sergeant
ID No: 16962071
MOS: 11C40: Indirect Fire Infantryman
Length Service: 01
Unit: D CO, 3RD BN, 60TH INFANTRY,
9TH INF DIV, USARV CASUALTY DATA Start Tour: 05/02/1968 Incident Date: 01/27/1969 Casualty Date: 01/27/1969 Age at Loss: 23 Location: Kien Hoa Province, South Vietnam Remains: Body recovered Casualty Type: Hostile, died outright Casualty Reason: Ground casualty Casualty Detail: Other explosive device "I was with Sgt hunter when he was mortally wounded we were on patrol in the Mekong delta with company D, 3/60th infantry mobile riverine force when Izagas Santos tripped a mine and was killed instantly, Sgt Hunter was wounded and died later, there were lots of wounded. Harold Hunter was a good soldier and a Christian. In 1994 I found his family and visited them I met
his mom Alta Hunter, brother Freddie Hunter, and son Rondl Hunter. They are fine people looking, for any mementos of Harold Hunter if you have any please contact me. I think of Harold often."
URL: www.VirtualWall.org/dh/HunterHH01a.htm ON THE WALL Panel 33W Line 002
Charles Frank Morley
Major 557TH TAC FTR SQDN, 12TH TAC FTR WING, 7TH AF
United States Air Force
Warrensburg, Missouri
February 12, 1942 to July 24, 1979
(Incident Date February 18, 1970)
CHARLES F MORLEY is on the Wall at Panel W13, Line 29
101st Legacy: From Vietnam widow to Army mom by Amy Zink, Courier staff
SGT Joe Edward Raber http://www.virtualwall.org/dr/RaberJE01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1970 , from Holden, Missouri
CPL John Harold Welch http://www.virtualwall.org/dw/WelchJH01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1967
SP4 Troy Edward Hirni II http://www.virtualwall.org/dh/HirniTE01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1968
It is the Soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion.9TH INF DIV, USARV CASUALTY DATA Start Tour: 05/02/1968 Incident Date: 01/27/1969 Casualty Date: 01/27/1969 Age at Loss: 23 Location: Kien Hoa Province, South Vietnam Remains: Body recovered Casualty Type: Hostile, died outright Casualty Reason: Ground casualty Casualty Detail: Other explosive device "I was with Sgt hunter when he was mortally wounded we were on patrol in the Mekong delta with company D, 3/60th infantry mobile riverine force when Izagas Santos tripped a mine and was killed instantly, Sgt Hunter was wounded and died later, there were lots of wounded. Harold Hunter was a good soldier and a Christian. In 1994 I found his family and visited them I met
his mom Alta Hunter, brother Freddie Hunter, and son Rondl Hunter. They are fine people looking, for any mementos of Harold Hunter if you have any please contact me. I think of Harold often."
URL: www.VirtualWall.org/dh/HunterHH01a.htm ON THE WALL Panel 33W Line 002
Major Charles Frank Morley http://www.virtualwall.org/dm/MorleyCF01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Laos 1979 
Charles Frank Morley
Major 557TH TAC FTR SQDN, 12TH TAC FTR WING, 7TH AF
United States Air Force
Warrensburg, Missouri
February 12, 1942 to July 24, 1979
(Incident Date February 18, 1970)
CHARLES F MORLEY is on the Wall at Panel W13, Line 29
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SP5 Steven Ernest Arnold |
SP5 Steven Ernest Arnold http://www.virtualwall.org/da/ArnoldSE01a.htm Johnson County, Missouri Republic of (South Vietnam) 1969 Steve received the Bronze Star Medal w/OLC, Air Medal with 5 OLCs (oak leaf clusters), Vietnam Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Medic Badge, and 2 Marksman Badges.
Spec. 5 Steven E. Arnold, husband of Linda L. Arnold
Warrensburg, MO
Steven E. Arnold was drafted into the U.S. Army while married and living in Holden, Missouri. Steve was born Oct. 2, 1948 and was killed in Quang Tri, South Vietnam on Sunday, Oct. 5, 1969. Steve was the second loss to our small town from the Vietnam War, and it was a very sad day when his parents and family and all of the community of Holden received word of his loss.
Steve was a Combat Medic and died in a chopper crash on a stormy night going to pick up a wounded comrade.
Steve was 2 years older than me but I knew him well and considered him a friend. I remember he always had a smile on his face, one I will always remember. Steve was a very well liked boy by everyone who knew him. His family owned a store called "Holden Sundries" which had a restaurant in the back and a lot of the kids use to hang out there after school.
I also knew his parents and family real well and they really miss Steve, still today they will put a remembrance in the local Holden Newspaper on his birthday.
I talked with Steve's Mother and she said that Steve's unit in Vietnam use to call him "Screamin' Jesus" because when he would leave on a mission he would scream to have that hootch clean by the time he got back. She also told me he was with the 326th Medical Battalion Air Ambulance as a Combat Medic, attached to the 101st Airborne Division. She said when he got a chance that he really loved to go visit the orphans and give them bubble gum that she had sent him.
Steve's Mother, Wilma, told me Steve received the Bronze Star Medal w/OLC, Air Medal with 5 OLCs , Vietnam Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Medic Badge, and 2 Marksman Badges.
Steve, we all miss you, especially your Mother and your family and thanks so much for our freedom.
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Since Vietnam, war strategies have changed. Weapons have changed. Battlefields have changed. But, what has not changed are the faces of war; young Soldiers and their spouses,
newly married and putting the start of their Family on hold until the end of a deployment. They do this willingly, knowing that their love can sustain them until the next letter, the next phone call, and the final welcome home.
For some, that welcome is not one with music,
hugs, and tears of joy. Instead, it is a more somber occasion that honors a hero and leaves a young widow to face an uncertain future alone.
Linda
Eaton met sweetheart Sgt. Steven Arnold in a social club in
Warrensburg, Mo. in 1967. That very night a smitten Arnold went home and told his mother that he had met the girl he was going to marry. After a
year of dating, Linda and Arnold were married in January of 1968.
They
started out like many newly married couples. Each working long hours,
saving money and planning their future. Their lives soon changed.
“I
worked at a shoe factory, and I came home one afternoon and he was
there,” said Linda. “Normally, he wasn’t home because he worked. He was
lying on the couch with a gun in his hand, he had his foot propped up
and he handed me the telegram.”
Arnold had been drafted into the Vietnam War.
“He
said ‘I’m going to shoot off my toe.’ I talked him out of it,” said
Eaton. “It wasn’t hard. He didn’t have any intention of doing that.”
The story of a war widow
After
being married for only four months, Arnold left for basic training.
Arnold returned to Linda for two weeks after training before deploying
to Camp Eagle, Phu Bai, Vietnam with Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 326th Medical Battalion, 101st Airborne Division as a part of
the Eagle Dustoff ambulance platoon.
When she bid him farewell with one last kiss, Linda “kissed him [goodbye] real, real hard.”
Then,
her wait began. “Back in those days it was letters. It wasn’t phone calls or knowing where they were or having computers to communicate … it
was waiting for a letter. And I wrote a letter every single day,” Linda
said.
She lived with her parents while Arnold was gone and she continued to work at the shoe factory.
“Every
day I would go by [the factory] post office box looking for a letter.
The days I got a letter, the ladies would know before they even asked
because they knew by my face,” Linda said.
Time wore on. Days and months passed.
Then, one day “my dad went to the P.O. Box and the last letter that I had written had been returned,” Linda said.
“My
dad instinctively knew that that might have meant something, but I
didn’t know it,” she said. “I continued my letter writing and one
afternoon as I sat at my desk and I was writing to Steve – let me tell
you first I loved the way he smelled – [his] smell washed over me and I
laid my head down and I just absorbed the smell.”
That moment was a premonition for Linda.
“It
wasn’t very long after that that a major came to the shoe factory and I
was called to the front,” she said. With the emotion of her loss 44
years earlier still palpable in her voice “The first person I saw was my
dad. The major took me into the manager’s office and told me that Steve
was missing in action.”
Arnold died in a helicopter crash in
Quang Tri, Vietnam on October 5, 1969. It was only three days after his
21st birthday and three weeks before he was to return home to Linda’s
arms.
According to http://www.virtualwal.org/da/arnoldse01a.htm,
the crew had volunteered to evacuate a Soldier trapped in a bunker cave-in. The fall monsoons were making the rescue mission difficult and
on the third attempt, the “aircraft commander elected to fly at very low altitude in an effort to operate below the clouds. The aircraft
apparently rolled inverted and crashed.”
Because of the crash,
there was difficulty positively identifying Arnold and the three other crewmen. The final confirmation of Arnold’s death made its way to Linda
through an uncle who had been working in Da Nang, Vietnam.
“I
buried him in his home town of Holden, Mo. Steve loved his hometown. He
loved playing baseball there, he loved everything that he did there and
his mom and dad were there,” said Linda.
New beginnings
Linda
embarked on her solo mission. She picked up and moved to Sedalia, Mo.
where she contemplated nursing school, but ended up working for a
newspaper. Ultimately, she moved to Poplar Bluff, Mo. where she started
her career in the boating industry. For years after Arnold’s death,
Linda worked at building her career, not knowing that her life would
drastically change again.
This time, it was for the better. Ten
years later, at a boat show in Atlanta, Ga. she met her husband John
Eaton. They had only one date, but Linda has a way of making an
impression on people. John pursued their long distance relationship.
“We
actually had met many years before that,” said John who is eight years
Linda’s junior. “I was working for my dad at his marina, and as I was
pumping gas and I would see her out on the dock when she was working.”
“I remember seeing him standing on the dock,” Linda said with a chuckle.
“With my Texaco uniform on,” said John.
The sentiment of long ago, happy memories is apparent in both of their voices.
“We
proceeded to talk for three months. Our long distance bills were just
horrible, even by today’s standards,” she said. On March 9, 1978, they
made a trip to “the North Georgia Mountains and got married. Now, I’m
Mrs. John Eaton ... he took me with all my baggage.”
After they were married, the Eaton’s chose to foster children in their home.
“We fostered for 14 years and 51 kids,” said Linda.
“She
has been the angel of the group here,” said John. “There was a 5 year
period during the foster years that we had 6 kids under the age of five
at one time. I’ve travelled a good portion of our marriage and she’s
the one who’s taken care of it all.”
Through the foster program, the Eaton’s became parents when they adopted their children William and Emily.
“Our
son Bill was a ‘failure to thrive baby’ and wasn’t expected to live.
They brought in a baby that was 6 months old that weighed his birth
weight,” said Linda. “I laid him on the floor with blankets and with
toys all around and touched him and fed him.”
From that moment,
Linda was 100 percent a mother. As a career woman in the 1970s Linda
had made a success of herself, but “having Bill and Emily as our
children …,” says Linda, “I couldn’t have asked for a better job on this
earth.”
The mother of a Soldier
One day, 19-year-old William came home to tell Linda and John that he was enlisting in the Army.
“She
knew I had talked to the recruiters,” said William. “The reason I
joined was that after 9/11 I just really wanted to be a part of
something. I wanted to be a gunner on a Humvee and go to Iraq. I joined
as a 19 Delta [Calvary Scout], and a year after I joined I was in Iraq.”
Sergeant
William Eaton deployed to Iraq with 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry
Regiment at Fort Hood, Tx. for 15 months, and again to Afghanistan with
Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Battalion, 320th Field
Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell.
For Linda, things had come full circle.
June 25, 2008 William was injured by an improvised explosive device serving in the Diyala Province, Iraq.
“I
was in the lead vehicle,” he said. “We headed down this old road that looked like no one had been down it for a while. We only got about 100
feet before we hit it. I just remember looking up and seeing the
fireball.”
Linda was “not happy at all,” he said, but “as long as
she knew I was safe she was OK. She could deal with it. I was able to
call and tell her as soon as I got back to base.”
Because of his injuries, William reclassified and became a field artillery meteorological station leader with HHB. Shortly after, he was being
deployed with the 101st Airborne, the same unit that Arnold had deployed
with.
“This is a unit that I always wanted to come to, but I knew
that she wasn’t too excited about it,” he said. “She didn’t want me to come here. She wanted me to go somewhere else.” With a smile, he adds
“She was going to call somebody and make sure I didn’t go to the 101st,
or something along those lines … she didn’t make the call.”
“It
wasn’t that I wasn’t happy,” Linda said. “If I could even explain to you
that when I held that little baby in my arms I prayed that there
wouldn’t be war … I had already lost at war. When he said the 101st, it
kind of hit me between the eyes; first my husband and now my child.”
Ultimately,
John and Linda embraced their son’s decision to become a Soldier. We were “apprehensive but terribly proud,” said John. “That’s one of those mixed emotion things. It’s like on the deployments you’re scared half to
death and proud as can be at the same time.”
During William’s
career, Linda has been the ultimate Army mom and has supported her
Soldier in every way thinkable. If there was something that William
needed during his deployments, it was in the mail the next day. While he
was recovering from his injuries, Linda spent hours online playing
games and chatting with him. And, when he returned to Fort Campbell,
Linda came a week earlier to rent and furnish an apartment for her son.
Linda’s survival advice to spouses
“Life
goes on,” Linda says. “You have to take a deep, deep breath and breathe
it. It’s all an adventure; you don’t know it when you’re that young.
You don’t know that [the] one thing [that] might happen that [is] so
terrible, if that thing hadn’t happened then, where you’re so happy at
right now might not have been possible.”
And Linda is happy. She
and John have been married 38 years and have 11 grandchildren, including
triplets that William and his wife will welcome in July.
It is apparent that Linda’s pain and the loss of her first love are still very real emotions for her.
“It’s
not easy being a [military] spouse,” she said. “Any traumatic event in
your life, it takes two years to get over it. You have to live every day
in that two years so that you know everything is going to be OK and
that you’re past it. The edge is still there, but the big pain is gone.
Time heals.”
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| Holden, Missouri Vietnam Memorial Hirni, Arnold, Raber  |
SGT Joe E. Raber and PFC Gary R. White were members of C Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. On May16, 1970, they were at a USO performance taking place at Tay Ninh base camp. In what was considered a racially motivated attack, SP4 James E. Paul opened fire on a group of soldiers attending the show, killing SGT Raber and PFC White and wounding ten others.
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| Joe E. Raber, Holden, MO |
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| CPL John Harold Welch, Knob Noster, Missouri Bronze Star Recipient
Birth: Aug. 25, 1947, USA
Death: Nov. 1, 1967
Binh Dinh, Vietnam
John Welch was raised in Knob Noster, Missouri, graduating from the Knob Noster High School in 1965. He was killed when he tripped a booby trapped explosive device while on a combat mission in Binh Dinh Province while serving with "B" Company, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 50th Infantry then attached to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
He was awarded the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, Purple Heart and promoted to Corporal, posthumously.
A memorial page for John may be found on the 50th Infantry Association Web Site at: http://www.ichiban1.org/pdf/Memorial/Welch.pdf
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| SP4 Troy Edward Hirni II |
It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
World War II
Johnson County, MO West of Warrensburg