Memorial Day 2003
Local Vietnam vet searches for info on all fallen county vets from all wars

"All gave some - some gave all"

By Rhonda Westfall

A desire to remember comrades who served during the Vietnam War prompted Gordon Shipley to begin gathering information about the servicepersons from Clinton County who paid the ultimate price in that conflict.

Like the piece of earth they died on, their 15 names trigger intense feelings - as do those of the hundreds of other Clinton County veterans who lost their in all of this country's wars.

His Vietnam project led Shipley to undertake what has become a passion - finding the names of all those veterans along with as much data as possible.

"No way is this anywhere near complete - it's just at a starting point now," he said. "My hope is that by having the information that I have gathered so far published here, people who read it will add to it - or tell me where I have made mistakes."

The scope of the project is pretty daunting, especially considering that up until two months ago, Shipley conducted all his research in his "off time," from work at the Clinton County Road Commission.

"Now that I've retired, I'm trying to devote as much time as possible to filling in the blanks for the veterans I know about," he said.

That ranges from the four servicepersons who Shipley has documented as being killed in the Spanish American War, to the amazing 318 listed from Clinton County as being killed during the Civil War.

Shipley's primary sources of information have included the 1880 and 1980 Histories of Clinton County, newspaper articles, cemetery documents and headstones, family histories - and just about anywhere else he can think of.

"There are many, many people who have helped with this, and I hope that reading this list will prompt others to call me with information," Shipley said.

Draft copies of the list to date are also available at the American Legion Post 153 in St. Johns, VFW Post 4113 in St. Johns and Clinton County DAV.

Shipley's initial project of compiling a list of Vietnam veterans was the result of a conversation between the 1966 graduate of Rodney B. Wilson High School and fellow alumni

"A few years ago, a couple friends who I went to school with and served with in Vietnam were talking about others who were killed - we came up with 10 names from Clinton County," Shipley said. "Our class was lucky - no one was killed. Classes before and after us were not as fortunate."

In the time that followed, Shipley became more serious about finding the names of every Clinton County resident who had died while serving in Vietnam - and where they were buried.

"It seems important to me that we should also know where they are buried - that information was not included in the service records," Shipley says.

Persons with additional information on county residents who were killed in any of the nation's wars should call Shipley at (989)224-4792.