Photo from the Warren Times Mirror and Observer Articles like these can be found for many of the men from Warren County who died in Vietnam.

1968 was one of the most tumultuous years in our nation’s history.

The Tet Offensive, kicked off in January, inflicted substantial casualties on Americans in Vietnam.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April.

Robert F. Kennedy, a leading Democratic hopeful in the 1968 presidential election, was assassinated in June.

Protests ravaged the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

For three additional Warren County families, 1968 turned into a terrible year. A look at casualty lists would explain why.

County men John Surgalski (Feb. 7), John Ishman (Feb. 22) and Adolph Hamm (Sept. 22) died in service to the country that year.

Surgalski, a Tidioute native, died three months shy of his 20th birthday.

“Pfc. Surgalski, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph J. Surgalski, Tidioute, suffered fatal wounds from enemy rifle fire while on patrol near Quang Nam, a defense department report said,” according to the Feb. 17, 1968 Warren Times Mirror and Observer.

A 1966 Tidioute High grad, the paper reported that Surgalski enlisted in the Marine Corps in Jaunary 1967 adn was assigned to H & S Co., Third Amtrack Battalion, First Marine Division.

He was born in Tidioute May 11, 1948 and graduated from Tidioute High School in 1966. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 1967 and was attached to H & S Co., Third Amtrack Battalion, First Marine Division. Amtrack stands for “Amphibious Tractor.”

According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, he was a crewman aboard an assault amphibious vehicle.

He’s buried at the Warren County Memorial Park.

Not all of these men were young and single.

John E. Ishman was born in 1939 and entered the Army at the age of 23 in 1966. After two years in Korea and Okinawa, he reenlisted and served 11 months in Vietnam and then in Germany, according to the March 16, 1969 Times Mirror and Observer.

In 1967 he volunteered to return to Vietnam and arrived in October.

A comment on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund page for Ishman said he served as a heavy construction equipment operator in the 9th Infantry Division.

The news of his death made it to Warren County in late February.

“A 28-year-old Clarendon man became Warren County’s sixth victim of the Vietnam war last week,” the paper reported. “Mrs. Doris Ishman Bacon, 121 Railroad St., Clarendon, was informed by the U.S. Army last Saturday night that her son, Specialist 4th Class John E. Ishman, had been killed in action near Saigon.

“The Warren County casualty had been serving in the armed forces for the past five years and had been stationed in Vietnam since October of last year.”

He’s buried at the Kiffer Hill Cemetery in Endeavor.

Adolph Hamm was born in March 14, 1948 and was 20 when he was killed in Vietnam.

The paper reported in Jan. 1968 that he left on Jan. 3 “to serve in the Armed Forces.”

He returned to the county in May.

“Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Hamm had a family get-together for their son ‘Butch’ on Sunday, May 19th,” the paper erported. ” Guests were from Buffalo, Bemus Point, Sugar Grove, Corry, and Bear Lake. He is home on leave from the Army and will be sent to Vietnam.”

He and his wife, Patricia, had a son in August. A note in the paper said that Hamm was in Vietnam.

Bad – but not catastrophic – news started to filter back to the county the following month.

“PFC Adolph B (Butch) Hamm, husband of Mrs. Patricia Hamm, Bear Lake, has been reported missing in action in Vietnam,” the paper reported on Sept. 28.

An update to that report was published in the Titusville Herald two days later – Hamm “has been declared missing in action in South Vietnam. Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Hamm, Sr. were informed by telegram Friday that their son, PFC Adolph Hamm, Jr., was officially listed as missing following action at Cu Chi, South Vietnam. The wire said he was last seen Sept 15 in a defense position while his unit was engaged in action against a hostile force” at night.

The Times Mirror and Observer reported that same day that Hamm “has become the ninth Warren County serviceman killed in action in Vietnam.

“The Defense Department notified Mrs. Patricia Hamm of her husband’s death over the weekend,” the account read.

The paper reported that Hamm had been in Vietnam for four months as part of the 25th Infantry Division.

He was a 1966 graduate of Panama Central School and the paper said he was working at the Corry-Jamestown Corp. and Marlin-Rockwell Corp. prior to entering the service.