IN MEMORY HONOR ROLL

Jimmy was born May 31, 1947 to Bill and Mona Bradley in Gainesville, MO. His father was killed in a truck accident when Jimmy was four. His twin sister’s name is Julia Carryl Brown. He has two older sisters’ named Karen and Billie. Jimmy grew up on a beef cattle farm. After high school he was drafted into the Army. He was at Fort Hood, TX from Sept 1966 to Sept. 1967. In 1967 he went by ship, the General John Popo to the coastal city of Quinhon, South Vietnam. He was 19 years old. From there he went to Ankhe and then to his base camp LZ Uplift. He was in infantry and reconnaissance. He turned 21 in Vietnam as he wrote in one of his letters to our mother. The war changed our brother. He was more serious about life. After he returned home he ran his beef cattle farm and also worked for almost 30 years as a clerk at the US Post Office until he became ill. Our family was so grateful that Jimmy returned home to us. We felt great sadness and guild because of those soldiers who did not return home alive. We didn’t speak of Vietnam in our family for 25 years – very seldom anyway, until the last few months of Jimmy’s life. His Bronze Star came after his return home. He never talked wrote about that battle in any letters to our mother. When his Bronze Star letter came, which tells what he did that day, our mother said “It gives me the shivers to think about it. Jimmy might not have come home alive, we are lucky.” When we speak about the Bronze Stare Jimmy said “I was just doing my job and what I was supposed to do.” He had three children, Kara, Jamie and Lance. After his death six grandchildren were born whom he never got to see. He loved his children and would have loved his grandchildren had his life not been cut short. He was gone too soon.