Fifty years the same name, the same mission Sgt. James Ballay, Sr.
James Ballay, Jr.
Members of the Ballay family continue military service
H
istory has odd ways of resonating. Fifty years ago, America was at war in South Vietnam. Like all wars, there were local casualties. Monett veterans have not tallied the count of soldiers lost in that war. Many from the bi-county area served, as The Monett Times reported in the day. Ten Barry County names have been included in a list of Missouri Vietnam veterans in a memorial at College of the Ozarks, and another in Jefferson City. The loss is still felt keenly among some of the families. To this day, the family of Thomas Wolfe is still trying to retrieve his remains from where his plane was shot down in Laos in 1966. In the family of one of Monett’s Vietnam casualties, a young man bearing the name of a lost soldier, has embraced the legacy of his family member by completing his training to become a U.S. Marine. James Ballay, a 1967 Monett High School graduate, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer V. Ballay of Monett, was killed in action in Cambodia on May 12, 1970. Ballay had recently been promoted to the rank of sergeant while serving with A Company, Third Battalion, 506th Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division in South Vietnam.
Story by Murray Bishoff
He had been decorated numerous times, receiving the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon, The Vietnam Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the Sharpshooter Badge with Automatic Rifle Bar and the Marksman Badge with Machine Gun and Rifle Bars. He had served in Vietnam nearly one year. “He was literally killed while walking to the helicopter that would have started his journey home,” said his cousin, Gene Ballay, who lives in Aurora. “He had four sisters, two of which still live in Monett — including Betty Ballay Ruscha and her husband, Randy.” Jimmy Ballay was not the only Monett soldier killed under such non-combat conditions. Max Biggerstaff, another Monett High School graduate, was killed by a sniper in 1945 in Germany while on guard duty just days after combat in World War II ended. Biggerstaff was an accomplished writer who penned many colorful accounts of MHS sports events in the late 1930s while still in high school. Unlike Biggerstaff and his contemporaries, many of whose families had to wait years for their remains to be Connection Magazine | 45
