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Charles Hawley
TUESDAY, August 7, 2018 / Vol. 4 Issue 32 / 75 cents
Son heading for NY to claim long-lost lighter By Anita Tucker/Voice Editor
Daniel L. Kelley
This Zippo lighter was lost in Vietnam 49 years ago.
In 1969, U.S. Marine Daniel L. Kelley lost his engraved Zippo lighter in Chu Lai, Vietnam. A few years ago, the lighter turned up in a ditch on a roadside in Springville, New York, near Niagra Falls. Operation Return Pilot Lighter was launched on social media and on Aug. 16, Kelley’s son Josh will travel to New York to claim the lighter. Josh Kelley says there is a string of coincidences surrounding the lighter: The Zippo was lost 49 years ago and Dan Kelley was 49 years old when he died; Josh was told of his father’s death shortly after Father’s Day in 1997 and he was notified of the Facebook posting on the lighter around Father’s Day this year; Niagra Falls, near Springville, is a place that his dad took Josh on vacation as a child; Josh has been invited to kick off a food drive
for veterans on Aug. 18 while he is in New York, and Aug. 18 is Josh’s 43rd birthday. Kelley plans to take part in the walk for veterans despite the fact that he was born in 1975 with only one leg and neither arm below the elbow. Doctors doubted he would live to his first birthday. Kelley is a victim of Agent Orange. His father served as an E5 in Marine Air Group 13 VMFA 115 tasked in Aviation Ordinance. The airbase around Chu Lai and Daniel Kelley and his crew mates were heavily exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide mixture that U.S. military forces sprayed in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 during the Vietnam War for the dual purpose of defoliating forest areas that might conceal Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces and destroying crops that might feed the enemy. Relatives said Dan Kelley came back from the war a different man.
He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and in 1997 he drove from his California home to the Nevada desert and took his own life. He has been dead half of Josh’s life. Josh knew about the lighter for a long time and said having it returned is “almost like he sent it.” “I’m still in shock,” he says. In 2014, Kelley traveled with Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance where he met many people with the similar birth defects. He says he was accepted there. In 2015, he went to testify before a congressional staff in Washington, D.C., to support a bill that mandates the children of male Vietnam veterans be covered for the same birth defects the VA currently acknowledges in the children of female Vietnam Veterans. While there he stopped by Sen. John Boozman’s (R-Ark.) of-
Josh Kelley of Scotland says the biggest obstacle he has to face is other people’s perception of him. fice and talked with an aide, asking for his office to look into issues with his disability payments. He said he was promised they would look into it, then heard nothing and the office has now said he was
never there. “I have pictures” of himself with an aide, he said. Though Kelley, a father of four, lives in See Kelley on page 2
County schools open Aug. 13
All three school districts in Van Buren County have done some sprucing up over the summer and are ready to welcome back students next week. School starts on Aug. 13 throughout the state.
South Side
Regions Bank had its sewer line on Boykin street replaced last week.
South Side-Bee Branch School District will host its Open House at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and drinks will be served outside between Hornet Health Care and the high school. At 6 p.m., the program will move to the high school auditorium. After presentations have been made by the administration, parents and students can report to their respective schools to meet teachers, tour buildings, and visit classrooms. Dr. Aaron Hosman is the new superintendent. The school district will provide basic school supplies for elementary students.
Students will need a backpack If additional supplies are needed, teachers will send a list home on the first day of school. All high school, students will be provided with all the school supplies they need to begin the school year.
Shirley
At Shirley schools, Open House is scheduled for Aug. 9 from 4-6 p.m. The 2017-2018 school year for Shirley starts at 8 a.m. for elementary and high school students. Dismissal will be at 3:10 p.m. for high school and 3:05 for elementary. All students will meet in their home room for first period class to begin the day on Monday. All students will be offered breakfast and lunch at no cost for the first tray. Breakfast is served from 7:40-8 a.m. each day. The transportation department is excited
The Shirley School District purchased two new 65-passenger buses for the school year. about the addition of two new 65-passenger buses purchased by the Shirley School District. The maintenance department has been working hard this summer to upgrade facilities and playground for the students. Some of the improvements include painting the hallway of the elementary building, the exterior of the cafeteria and the agriculture
building, adding an “S” monogram to the hallway of the elementary building, overlaying the asphalt basketball court with concrete to make it safer and installing four basketball goals so that more students have the opportunity to play at recess. There are exciting
Lanier
Gibson
D felony. Police were called July 26 to a home on Cedar Crest Lane where a woman told them her husband grabbed her by the throat and began choking her. She said Gibson got into
his truck and she was afraid he was going to run over her so she went into the woods to hide, according to an affidavit for arrest. Gibson’s pre-trial hearing is set for Sept. 10 in Van Buren County Circuit Court.
See School on page 3
Suspect kicks deputy, report states A trespassing call on Gaslight Road escalated to a threat to kill a neighbor and a tussle with deputies late last week. Deputies were called to Gaslight Road on July 30 and arrived to find a man who appeared to be “under the influence of a narcotic,” according to an affidavit for arrest. According to the report, a deputy advised Kristopher A. Lanier to stay off his neighbor’s property, to
which Lanier responded that he had a right to be on every part of the land on Gaslight Road. Lanier said his neighbor was paying money to the government for the property, which made the property unavailable to have “no trespassing” enforced, the report states. The deputy said if each neighbor would stay off the other’s property the dispute would be solved. Lanier stated, the report says, that he would
handle it himself and kill the neighbor to end it. Lanier was placed under arrest and began to resist, the report states. He reached for a machete on the porch, the report states. Deputies used OC spray on him before handcuffing him. After being moved in the squad car, Lanier kicked a deputy in the upper leg, according to the report, and deputies “took” him to the ground again. Lanier, 26, of Clin-
ton has been charged with aggravated assault/corrections law enforcement officer, Class D felony; terroristic threatening-first degree, Class D felony; and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. Lanier’s pre-trial hearing is set for Sept. 10, 2018. In a separate incident, Jonathan Kyle Gibson, 27, of Clinton has been charged with aggravated assault on family/household member, a Class