iPentimento | Genealogy and History

I was a freshman in high school when the Vietnam War was just beginning. My brother was four years older than I, and his classmates were graduating and going off to Vietnam. Our school had a total of about 700 kids enrolled and we knew most of them by name. We lived across a big field from Tumwater High School and so it was easy and convenient for me to walk there to attend classes and weekend sporting events.

One of the star basketball players was Duane Cordiner. His name was always in the paper and we all “knew” him and were proud that he was one of us. It was probably my brother who told us of Duane’s death in Vietnam since they were in the same year in school. Duane was the first death that hit home, but before his death in 1970, it had become common to begin conversations with, “Did you hear, ___ died in ‘Nam”!?

Footnote’s latest release is images of the Vietnam Wall names. I found Duane’s tonight and I may look for some more that might have been there. Boys who have stuck in my memory but are lost to time. Each name is highlighted and all of the military information available is listed with it. You can’t save the image to a file, but if you have a way to capture it like with SnagIt or a screen capture feature, you can have the picture of the name. You will also be able to copy the text information for your files. For those of us who can’t visit the wall in DC, or even go to the traveling wall, this is something very special.

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