— Submitted photo. Steven Dwight Sears in a family photo with siblings at the navy base in San Diego, California.

They should be grandfathers by now, happily retired. They could spend their summers seeing the country they fought to defend. Maybe cruise the remnants of Route 66.

A few of them left wives and children behind, but most never married, many never lived to age 21. These are the men who answered the call to serve and who gave the ultimate sacrifice so far from home in what was then known as South Vietnam.

Fifty years have passed since the Paris Peace Accord was signed in 1973. Active hostilities ramped down, but more men would die, right up until the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1975.

In a war that tore the nation apart like no other, there is much owed to these men who put service above politics, and nation above self. To honor their memories, to recall their names, their great sacrifice, is the very least of the debt we owe these men.

We list the names of the fallen here. These are the men of Hamilton County listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

All names were obtained from virtualwall.org. To read more about veterans from other north central Iowa counties, please see larger series in The Fort Dodge Messenger or by visiting messengernews.net.

Highview

Steven Dwight Sears was the son of Frank and Joy Sears.

A 1965 graduate of Webster City High School, his address is given as Highview on virtualwall.org. He enlisted in the navy in March 1966. He trained as a navy corpsman and was sent to South Vietnam in June 1967.

Petty Officer Sears accidentally tripped a land mine on Nov. 1, 1967. He was airlifted from the scene but died at a Danang hospital.

He left behind a wife, Betty (Schendel) Sears of Pocahontas.

The couple had married on April 9, 1967, and lived at Oceanside, CA., while he trained that spring at Camp Pendleton.

She later remarried and is now Betty Sears Ohlinger.

She and his parents attended a 2011 ceremony in Webster City to add a plaque bearing his name to the Second Street Boone River bridge.

Petty Officer Sears was 20 years old. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery, Webster City.

Webster City

Randy Lee Fisher was the son of Harold Fisher and Leona (Combs) Fisher. He grew up in Webster City and, with his father’s permission, joined the Marine Corps, even before high school graduation.

Fisher arrived in South Vietnam in August 1970. His death on Oct. 1, 1970, was ruled an “accidental homicide.”

PFC Fisher was 19 years old. He left a young wife, Carol, behind. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery, Webster City.

Grayson Jerald West was the son of Joseph and Mildred (Wood) West. He grew up in Webster City and enlisted in the army in the late 1940s, making the army his career. Staff Sgt. West served in the Special Forces, Green Beret. He deployed to South Vietnam in November 1965.

On Dec. 16, 1965, he was killed in action while fighting near Hill 508. He was initially reported to be MIA, but his body was later recovered.

West was 37 years old and left behind a wife and children. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery, Webster City.

Editor’s Note: In addition to virtualwall.org, the University of Northern Iowa’s Veterans Remembrance Project, Together We Served, the Gold Star Hall website from Iowa State University, and the findagrave.com website were critical in compiling this story.

We thank all of these sources for their assistance and encourage readers to add information to the sites in order to build the history.