MEMORIAL

Austell and Mableton, Georgia

   The Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, "not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank, but in simple obedience to duty, as they understood it."

      Six young men from Austell, my hometown,  lost their lives in Vietnam and Cambodia.  The first was Jimmy Crook, he died on my 16th birthday, June 3, 1967.  Jimmy was a Marine Corps draftee, all six of the Austell men were either 0311 or 11B infantryman.   I did some calculating and divided the number that were killed from Austell by the population (2000) and came up with the figure of .003.  After this I multiplied .003 by 250,000,000- the approximate population of the United States and came up with the figure of 750,000. That is the number of dead that would have been incurred had all towns and cities in America lost men and women at the same rate.   If you are inclined to do the math I will save you the trouble, the national rate was .000232.  Austell had a loss rate of 600 per 100,000 males,  West Virginia had the highest state death rate of 84 per 100,000 males.  As far as I know state death rates are the only ones  published.  Having a place in the heart for the fallen is quite common among veterans and otherwise quite rare in society as a whole, with holidays being anything but holy in America.  The tragedy is that it must be very painful for the families of the men listed below. 

"Oh, Stranger, Go tell America that here we lie, obedient to her orders"

                                                                             Rudy Jaramillo B 2-12 1966 -  A 20th Century Spartan

South Cobb High School Memorial

Austell, Georgia

PFC Jimmy Ray Crook      June 3, 1967   Age 20

               USMC- Fox Company, 2nd Bn, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division                                                   

CPL Edward A. Moldavan   October 27, 1967  Age 20

                     US Army- B Troop, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, Americal Division                           

SGT Randy Hoffman Brock    February 7, 1968  Age 19

                 US Army, A Company, 1st Bn, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division                   

SP4 David Donald Reid     February 9, 1968  Age 22

                 US Army, C Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division 

1/35th Web Site                                      

PFC Stanley Eugene UR   February 28, 1969   Age 20

                 USMC- C Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division

CPL Raymond Murphy Morris   May 9, 1970   Age 20

            US Army-  A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment,  25th Infantry Division

Mableton, Georgia

SP4 Kenneth Ray Blair             August 12, 1968   Age 19

              US Army- F Company, 51st Ranger Battalion, 2nd Field Force

CPT Roy M Mc Williams         January 20, 1967  Age 26

                   US Army- Advisory Team 11, MACV Advisors, MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam)

SGT Leon Alton Palmer           August 17, 1968   Age 23

          US Army- C Company, 3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division

SGT Lonnie David Sprouse      September 28, 1966  Age 27

          USMC- H&S Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division

CPL David PL David Eugene Thomas      February 25, 1969    Age 20

          US Army- A Company, 4th Bn, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade

PFC Paul D. Cooper      15th Field Artillery 2nd Infantry Division  

PFC Joe E. Strickland     9th Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry Division

                                              February 14, 1951

PVT George E. Owenby  9th Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry Division

                                             March 10, 1951

PFC Earnest W. Leonard  38th Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry Division

                                             July 29, 1951

SFC Robert Massengale   15th Infantry Regiment 3rd Infantry Division

Return to ranger25.com