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Veterans group donates plaque to City honoring service members killed in Vietnam
Veterans group donates plaque to City honoring service members killed in Vietnam
Cover photo shows older woman standing with young students wearing Leavenworth High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet uniforms. Caption reads: Ellen Ferguson was a young woman when her cousin Eddie Ray Derritt was killed in Vietnam on May 3, 1966. Shown here surrounded by Leavenworth High School JROTC students, Ferguson was proud to represent her late cousin during a Vietnam Veterans of America ceremony at City Hall in October to present a plaque honoring Derritt and other Leavenworth, Kansas, service members killed in Vietnam. Ellen said that Eddie Ray had written home to his family that he was wounded. The letter arrived after they were notified of his death.
Article reads: A new plaque is now displayed at Leavenworth City Hall to honor American military service members killed in the Vietnam War. It was presented in October 2023 to the City of Leavenworth by the Capt. Patrick K. Harrold Leavenworth Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Harrold is one of those killed in action listed on the plaque. The plaque can be viewed on the first floor of Leavenworth City Hall, 100 N. Fifth Street, Leavenworth, Kansas 66048 during business hours.
Those remembered on the plaque include:
Cpl Eddie Derritt, U.S. Marine Corps
PFC Joe Emery, U.S. Army
PFC Harry Fuqua Jr., U.S. Army
PFC Wesley Gooch, U.S. Army
Capt Patrick Harrold, U.S. Air Force
SP 5 Gary Little, U.S. Army
SP4 Raymond Pike Jr., U.S. Army
1st Lt Harold Ring, U.S. Army
Capt Terence Sage, U.S. Army
SP4 Murvin Schalipp Jr., U.S. Army
Capt Carroll Wayne Spragins, U.S. Army
SP4 Dennis Whisker, U.S. Army
The plaque is directly adjacent to another plaque commemorating U.S. service members from Leavenworth killed in World War II and the Korean War. The two plaques hang side-by-side to honor and remember lives lost from our community.
