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.
SOURCE: Paulding County Progress