Trying to put faces to Vietnam War’s fallen
When Bobby Ray Bryant’s remains were found in Vietnam in 1966, he had a Wichita newspaper clipping with him.
The clipping announced the birth of his only son, Cassius.
Cassius Davis, now 50, still thinks about the father whom he lost when he was only 5 months old.
“As I got older, I started feeling like I had a void in my life,” Davis said. “I was around my (biological) father’s family, so you hear all these stories about him, what kind of guy he was. You do feel like you missed out on something.”
Bryant is one of 15 Vietnam veterans from Sedgwick County who do not have a photo accompanying their online profile at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Janna Hoehn wants to change that.
Hoehn, a volunteer with the memorial, has made it her goal to track down photos of every Vietnam veteran lost in the war in order to preserve their memory.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is tryng to raise $85 million to build the Education Center at the Wall, a two-story underground facility that will display the photos along with other Vietnam War historical items.
“I truly remember how (Vietnam veterans) were treated when they came home, and they were treated terrible,” said Hoehn, who lives in Hawaii. “I’ve always had this huge place in my heart for Vietnam vets.”
Army kid
Bryant was 17 when he left Wichita East High School to join the military.
As the son of a World War II veteran and the grandson of a World War I vet, he felt it was his duty, said Davis. He went voluntarily.
“He wanted to go over there,” Davis said. “My grandmother told me he wanted to be right in the middle of the skirmishes.
“I don’t know if he was a gung-ho type of person – I take it he just wanted to get over there and serve his country.”
When he was home on leave, he had a romantic night with a friend, and Davis said that’s when he was conceived.
Bryant left for his second tour in Vietnam in January 1966, and he knew about his son. He was “looking forward to being a father,” Davis said. He regularly wrote his mother letters.
Bryant, who was awarded the Purple Heart for previous war wounds, was killed on Oct. 2, 1966.
His platoon was ambushed while doing reconnaissance.
Bryant escaped but wanted to return to help his fellow platoon members, Davis said. He was shot in the back and killed, he said.
Bryant’s mother had to be hospitalized after hearing of his death, Davis said.
There was a large funeral in Wichita at Progressive Missionary Baptist Church with full military honors. Bryant is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery.
Davis, who now has a wife and two children, said he is a “proud son.”
“Me and my wife, we both had our grandparents and … my sons didn’t get a chance to have their grandfather around,” Davis said. “I’m not going to say that it bothered me, but it is kind of like something else that was missing.
“They did have my wife’s father and they were very close to him, but on my side of the family, I just wish he could have been around for his grandkids also.”
The Davis family plans to return to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington again this summer. Davis still wears a metal bracelet with his father’s name and service dates engraved on it.
“I think about it quite a bit,” he said.
Remembering veterans’ faces
Hoehn never knew anyone killed in the Vietnam War, but she said she felt surviving veterans were treated poorly on their return to the United States.
Since 2011, she has volunteered for the museum in Washington to help find photos of veterans who have none displayed there.
After finding photos of all 42 soldiers killed from Maui County, where she lives, she expanded her work to the continental U.S.
She spends her free time, when she’s not working as a florist, researching fallen Vietnam veterans.
“I put in over 40 hours a week on it,” she said.
Since 2011, she said, she has found photos of every fallen Vietnam veteran in Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Utah. She recently expanded her search to Kansas and Oklahoma, and she said she has received a positive response so far.
There were 626 Kansans who died in the Vietnam War. She does not have a picture for about 70 of those, she said.
“It’s quite a project and it’s not easy – this is true detective work,” she said. “We’re hoping that, once the museum opens, with the 4 million a year who visit the Wall, little by little we’re going to start getting better pictures.”
The Education Center at the Wall will display photos of the fallen veterans on their birthdays, Hoehn said, in addition to having searchable databases.
Its construction on the National Mall is being funded through private donations. For more information on the campaign to build the Education Center, visit www.vvmf.org/education-center.
Matt Riedl: 316-268-6660, @RiedlMatt
Beacon story about Bobby Bryant’s death
‘Nothing Has Happened to Bobby … ’
By George DeBord
Beacon Staff Writer
Will Bryant, a man who has seen much of the thing called life pass by, was working by himself Monday when the foreman came to see him.
“How you doin’ this morning, Will?” the foreman asked. He looked over the bench where Bryant had his work laid out, then said, “They want to see you at the security office.”
“What for?”
“I don’t know. I think you ought to get your coat. You might need it.”
Will Bryant, a thin, quiet Negro, whose face has borne fear and worry and sometimes happiness, followed the man, whose name he couldn’t remember, through the Beech Aircraft Co. plant.
As he walked through the door of the security office, Bryant saw an Army sergeant. The sergeant walked over to him.
“Are you Mr. Bryant?”
“Yes, sir, I am.”
They shook hands, and the thing that was in Bryant’s mind let itself go: “No,” he said. “It isn’t ... Nothing has happened to Bobby ...”
The sergeant said he was sorry, and asked Bryant if he would like to sit down. As they talked, Bryant remembered how it had been many years ago on Saipan and Guadalcanal ... the terror and confusion when they were shooting at you and your rifle was firing back and you didn’t even know if you were killing anybody.
And he wondered how it had been for Bobby, his son, and he hoped that it had been quick. He did not hold up the way he might have wanted ...
LATER IN the day, he went over to 819 N. Madison to be with his ex-wife. Her name now was Mrs. Sarah McPherson. There were tears in her eyes, and they did not go away, but she did not cry. And Will and Sarah were close in a way they had not been for a long time.
Today, they were adjusting to it and when the major came to act as survivors assistance officer they were able to talk with him.
HE LOOKED the way you want the Army to look, and if you could choose a man to talk with about something like this you would choose him. His tailored khaki uniform was a part of him, and his manner was polite, exact and confident.
BOBBY RAY BRYANT, 19, died Oct. 2 while on a combat mission in Viet Nam. He was killed by gunshot wounds and metal fragments while serving with Troop A, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.
The information the major had did not say where or any more than this. He would know more later.
Bobby Ray Bryant, son of Will Bryant and Sarah McPherson, left East High School in 1964 and went into the Army the same year at the age of 17.
On June 15, 1965, he was in a place called Santo Domingo. They called it a police action, not a war. But they shot at you anyway, and Bobby Ray Bryant got wounded in the leg.
He came home with the Purple Heart. He spent the Christmas holidays in Wichita with his parents and his friends.
In January, he went to Viet Nam.
SEVEN DAYS AGO, he wrote his last letter to his mother. He then was 22 days from going on leave, and he talked about a trip to Singapore.
After that, he said, it wouldn’t be long before he was returned to the states.
“I’ve been thinking I may move to Chicago when I get out ... But I got so much on my mind that I don’t really know what I’ll do.”
It was very much like the things Will Bryant once wrote about from the Pacific. And like the things he will think about tonight when he goes by himself to a house at 2717 E. 13th.
Seeking photos
Janna Hoehn, a volunteer with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, is trying to track down photos of every Vietnam veteran lost in the war. She is still searching for photos of the following veterans from Sedgwick County and the counties surrounding Wichita.
If you know of any of these veterans, or know family members who may have photos, contact Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com.
Sedgwick County
(all of Wichita)
▪ James Atkins, 1947-1969
▪ Johnnie R. Camden, 1950-1968
▪ Larry R. Clark, 1942-1969
▪ Ernest D. Dodson, 1946-1969
▪ Bob J. Goodwin, 1948-1967
▪ Gary L. Kenaga, 1947-1967
▪ Billy J. Lemley, 1934-1969
▪ Robert G. Malone, 1943-1966
▪ Richard L. McKinnell, 1947-1968
▪ Phillip D. Munday, 1947-1967
▪ Lester A. Stephens, 1943-1969
▪ Jerome D. Todd, 1949-1971
▪ Glenn E. White, 1948-1967
▪ Donald E. Whiters, 1948-1968
Harvey County
▪ John M. Hiebert, 1948-1971, of Hesston
Reno County
▪ Robert C. Greathouse, 1949-1969, of Hutchinson
Harper County
▪ Kenneth E. Coe, 1945-1967, of Anthony
This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Trying to put faces to Vietnam War’s fallen."