A Heroic Connection (Charlie James)

It took her 44 years, but Morreen O’Reilly-Mersberger finally tracked down the prisoner of war whose name was on a bracelet that she purchased in college and kept to this day.

The 62-year-old Plymouth resident bought the item for $2 in the fall of 1970 from a student group on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls campus that was selling bracelets to commemorate Vietnam POWs. The bracelet listed the name of Cmdr. Charlie James Jr. and the date of his capture, May 18, 1968.

The bracelets were meant to encourage people to remember and honor those fighting for the U.S. during the Vietnam War despite the controversy surrounding the conflict, said O’Reilly-Mersberger.

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A City in Conflict – Rochester During the Vietnam War (Bruce Archer)

Six months before American combat troops were committed to Vietnam, Eugene Richardson, a 21-year-ld flight mechanic from Monroe County was killed while flying ammunition to a Special Forces camp on October 24, 1964. Rochester soon became economically involved in the war. General Dynamics, Stromberg-Carlson, Graflex, EastmanKodak, Bausch and Lomb, and

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Always Out Front (Donald Rander)

During the night of January 31, 1968, a Villa in Hue occupied by the 135th MI Group regional team came under attack.   The shelling awakened Sergeant Donald Rander, assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Hue Regional Headquarters.   Grabbing flak jackets and weapons, the members grouped on the second floor.  They remained there

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