THE WALL OF FACES

I didn't know Joel Coleman, but I found a website that his son created in his memory. Joel was with Co. A, 2/7th Cavalry and I was with Co. D about a year after he was killed. Even though I never met him, he is remembered by me and all of us who served in the 7th Cav. GarryOwen, Joel!

MEMORIAL DEDICATION A TIME TO REFLECT FOR KIN OF VIETNAM WAR DEAD


NAMES OF COUNTY'S FALLEN 412 TO BE READ AT ROLL CALL


Widows, children and relatives of the young men whose lives ended
violently in Vietnam's mountains and rice paddies have waged quiet
battles for solace and comfort.

Tomorrow, as veterans and families gather to dedicate a black
granite Vietnam War Memorial, Kelly Rihn will read aloud the name
of Joel Daniel Coleman during a roll call of the 412 Allegheny County
men who died in Southeast Asia.

It will not be easy for the 36-year-old mother of two, a personable
woman who so disliked giving oral reports in school that she often
felt nauseous beforehand.

There was a time when Rihn could not speak her father's name
without crying. Since then, she has learned a lot about him and the
war he helped fight. Next March, Rihn will travel to Vietnam and meet
Vietnamese people who lost their fathers in conflict.

Tomorrow, when hundreds gather for the dedication ceremony in the
courtyard of the former Allegheny County Jail, Rihn will have plenty
of support.

Her friend, Toni White of Baldwin Township, will read the name of
Anthony Noah Conti, the father she never knew. White gave birth
April 24 to he first child, Anthony Lyons White.

Rihn and White met five years ago in Washington, D.C., during a
gathering of Sons and Daughters in Touch (SDIT), a national
organization for people whose fathers died in Vietnam. Rihn serves
on the board of the organization, which has over 1,000 members.

Rihn and White have washed the black granite wall at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington, which lists 58,226 men and
women who died during the Vietnam War.

White's mother, Lorrie Conti Zanni, 52, of Mount Washington, took
her children to The Wall in 1983.

"That's the only way these kids can touch their fathers or grandfathers.
It's a good thing, The Wall. It's more than just a grave. It's a
community. If you look at the wall, you see yourself. Not only are you
a reflection, but it's almost as if you're inside the granite. I wonder if
those kids get a sense of being inside the granite with their fathers,"
Zanni said.

Now a registered nurse and social worker who grew up in Sheridan,
Zanni said Anthony Conti was a witty man and the youngest of 16
children.

The couple married in February 1968 and enjoyed two months
together before Conti left for Vietnam. On 15 July 1968 Zanni
learned that her 19-year-old husband had died when a land mine
exploded beneath him.

Like Zanni, Susan Coleman-Fowler leaned heavily on her family
after losing Joel Coleman. Her late husband was a good-natured,
easygoing man from Lawrenceville who loved to fish in Highland
Park or at the Monongahela Wharf and drink a beer or two on the
weekends.

"I always felt safe with him. Kelly was just his pride and joy."

Coleman-Fowler was 17 and rocking and feeding Kelly when an
Army officer arrived at her family's Lawrenceville home to say
her husband had died of a gunshot wound to the head on 5 May
1966, during a firefight.

Coleman-Fowler, now a systems analyst at St. Francis Hospital,
recalls a welter of emotions.

"I felt confused and very lonely because I missed him so badly.
I was afraid. Here I am with this little baby. How was I going to
raise her ?"

Zanni has struggled to absorb the loss of her husband, who was
a machine-gunner on an armored personnel carrier.

She lived in a commune on the West Coast, married three more
times and gave birth to a son, Jesse. She worked as a hairdresser
while raising her children, then returned to school to become a
nurse in the mid-1980s.

From 1992 to 1997, Zanni paricipated in a support group at the
Vet Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

Now, she is training to become a yoga instructor.

When the names of local servicemen are read aloud, Don Gorham,
a 52-year-old city narcotics detective from Lawrenceville, will be
there with his brothers, Thomas Gorham of Shaler and William
Gorham of Lawrenceville.

The Gorham brothers all served in Vietnam and returned home.

"You think about it and you thank God for it," Don Gorham said.


by Marylynne Pitz - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Staff Writer

24 May 2002



===================================



JOEL DANIEL COLEMAN


was a posthumous recipient of the


BRONZE STAR MEDAL


PURPLE HEART MEDAL



===================================






Transcribed by

HISTORICAL MILITARIA

BIOGRAPHER OF THE LOST OF THE VIETNAM ERA - 1955 to 1975

Proud to remember our Pap-Pap. We love you!

Love, Megan and Alyssa

My father was a member of the First Cavalry
Division 2/7th (Airmobile). I am very proud of
my dad and his service to our country. I love
him and miss him dearly and feel very blessed
and proud to be his daughter.

To honor my father's life and service to his
country- please visit his personal page at
http://www.sdit.org/Coleman.html