Troop levels in Vietnam started to fall in 1969.

And that’s when the loss of Warren County natives would stop.

No more servicemen from the county would die after Sept. 1969.

But there was no way for people here to know that.

And as 1969 rolled along, the news of soldier after soldier dying in Vietnam made its way to Warren.

Photos from the Warren Times Mirror and Observer These photos of Rickerson and Bean were published along with the stories that announced their deaths in Vietnam.

The regular refrain of “Warren Serviceman Is Killed in Vietnam” appeared in the Warren Times Mirror and Observer on Aug. 18.

David Elton Bean had been reported killed four days earlier.

A member of the 1st Logistical Command, 47th Transportation Company, Bean was a 29-year-old staff sergeant when he was killed.

He had been in Vietnam less than two months.

“Sgt. Bean, the fifteenth Warren County serviceman to die in action in Vietnam, was reported fatally wounded when a vehicle in which he was riding was struck by enemy fire,” the newspaper reported.

That account says that Bean enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1959 and served one year in Korea and then two, three-year tours in Germany before his deployment to Vietnam.

Military records list his hometown as Clarendon and the paper reported that his wife, who he married 7 years earlier, and three children were living at a Pickering St. address in Sheffield.

Bean was laid to rest at Oakland Cemetery will full military honors.

“The honor guard accompanying Staff Sergeant David E. Bean is Sgt. Gene Strouph,” a funeral notice said.

That headline would return to the paper a month later – “Clarendon GI Is Killed In Vietnam” the Sept. 18, 1969 edition explained.

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton The names of David Bean and Steven Rickerson on the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C.

This announcement – the death of Lance Cpl. Steven A. Rickerson – would be the last such headline in Warren County.

“Lance Cpl. Steven A. Rickerson died in action in Vietnam Sept. 15 while serving with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division,” the paper reported. “He was on patrol five miles north of Vandergrift Combat Base when he was killed by hostile small arms fire.”

Rickerson was just 18-years-old when he was killed.

The paper reported that he “attended Warren Area High School prior to joining the Marine Corps in March of 1968. He had been in Vietnam since June 15. He was the 16th Vietnam combat casualty from Warren County.”

He was survived by four grandparents, his parents, a brother and three sisters.

Rickerson served in K Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force.

A comment on the page set up for his memory by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund gives some background on the operation he was involved in when he was killed.

“Operation Idaho Canyon was a two-month search and destroy mission in an area roughly bounded by the DMZ on the north, Highway QL-9 on the south, Con Thien on the east, and Khe Sanh to the west,” the comment, which can also be found on virtualwall.org, states. “The terrain was rugged, the hillsides jungled, and the North Vietnamese Army was present in force.

Their Command Chronology for September 1969 contains the following entry: “15 September 1969 0830H – Elements of Company K were ambushed by a reinforced NVA platoon. The enemy used .30 caliber machinegun, AK-47s, ChiComs [grenades], RPGs, and Claymore mines hung in trees. Forty-five minutes after contact, the unit began receiving 60mm mortar rounds for a period of 4 hours, totaling 50 rounds. The unit pulled back and called in artillery, 81mm mortars, gunships, and fixed wing.”

Rickerson was one of five Marines killed in the action.

A second comment is much more powerful yet succinct: Still think about you after all these years. I’ll see you again someday.”

Funeral services were held at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church and Rickerson was buried at Oakland Cemetery.

We end this series with a memorial that his mother published in a 1971 edition of the Times Mirror and Observer.

IN MEMORIAM

In loving memory of LCPL. STEVEN A RICKERSON who would have celebrated his 21st birthday today.

I send my love to you my dear,

You know ’tis sent, that I have not forgot;

For often when I am alone I feel your love return.

And oh, no words can say the peace that comes to me.

Your mother