People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.. ~George Orwell


Friday, September 21, 2018

Bloomington Vietnam Vet to be honored

Bloomington, IN (September 21, 2018) — On Sept. 22 at 10:30 a.m., on the courthouse square in Bloomington, Ind., there will be a special re-dedication to honor Army Specialist Gerald R. Ross.

Ross served in the Vietnam War where he was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 8, 1969. He was just 25 years old at the time and left behind a wife and four children.

Ross grew up in Grover Hill and eventually moved to Bedford, Ind. where he first enlisted in the National Guard. He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent overseas to Vietnam.


In August of 2016, the Monroe County Veterans Affairs office in Bloomington, Ind. held a special commemoration event for the soldiers that lost their lives in Vietnam that were from the county.

An e-mail had been sent from the office to the curator of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. to verify they had all the names of the service members. It was then discovered that Ross had been mistakenly left off of their list. Although he lived in the Paulding area, he was originally from Monroe County, Indiana.

Once they found out this information, they set out on a mission to find the family of Ross so they could properly honor him and add his name to their memorial.

On Aug. 10 of this year, the Monroe County Veterans Affairs office put a picture on their Facebook page of Spec. Ross in hopes of finding some of his family members. They had conducted a search in the Bloomington area and could not find any living relatives.

The Facebook nation then went to work and within a few hours, information came flooding in. They were able to locate his children and other family members.

The re-dedication is open to anyone who like to attend and there will be a luncheon afterwards provided by the VFW.