Sycamore in DeKalb County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
DeKalb County Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 1, 2024
1. DeKalb County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Marker
Francis A. Anderson Dale C. Brewer Eatterson Byrd, Jr. David Donnelly Rodney G. Drake Jimmy R. Harrison Richard A. Henke Richard L. Jossendal George D. Kinnett Jerome D. Kupperschmidt Charles F. Landers *James P. Mason Michael J. Moon Donald J. Morris Robert J. Neal James R. Page Jessie G. Poe Arthur G. Richardson Steven G. Williams
*MIA
Erected 1985 by VietNow, DeKalb County Chapter.
Topics. This memorial is listed in this topic list: War, Vietnam.
Location. 41° 59.344′ N, 88° 41.108′ W. Memorial is in Sycamore, Illinois, in DeKalb County. It can be reached from State Street (Illinois Route 64) west of Main Street ( Route 23), on the right. The marker is in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse, amid tall grass behind (north) of the Civil War Memorial. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: 133 West State Street, Sycamore IL 60178, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this memorial is in Northern Illinois.
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Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: For God and Country (a few steps from this marker); DeKalb County Civil War Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); Sycamore Historic District (within shouting distance of this marker); Chicago and Northwestern Depot (approx. Ό mile away); DeKalb County Farm Bureau (approx. 1.8 miles away); DeKalb Swine Breeders (approx. 2.3 miles away); Sherret S. Chase (approx. 2.4 miles away); DeKalb Ag (approx. 2½ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Sycamore.
Regarding DeKalb County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial honors the 19 DeKalb County men who died in the Vietnam War.
Sgt. Francis Anderson, from Sandwich, on the southern edge of DeKalb County, was killed by an enemy explosive device in Kon Tum Province
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 1, 2024
2. DeKalb County Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Marine Lance Corporal Dale Brewer died on November 29, 1967, of wounds he suffered from artillery fire about 7 weeks earlier. A 1966 graduate of DeKalb High School, Brewer was 19 years old and left behind a widow, Jeraldine. He is buried in DeKalb's Fairview Cemetery.
Eatterson Byrd Jr. was born in Tennessee and raised in Sycamore, where he graduated from Sycamore High School in 1965. He was a month shy of 23 years old when he was killed in Cambodia by artillery fire on May 28, 1970. He was survived by his wife of almost 4 years, Patricia. He is buried in Sycamore's Elmwood Cemetery.
A native of DeKalb, Army Pfc. David Donnelly was wounded by sniper fire on August 12, 1967, four days before his 21st birthday. He succumbed to complications from those wounds about four months later at Hines VA Hospital outside of Chicago, on New Year's Day 1968. He's buried at DeKalb's Fairview Cemetery.
Army Specialist Rodney G. Drake was born in Sycamore and graduated from Sycamore High in 1964. He worked as a farmer after graduating, and his hometown
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 1, 2024
3. DeKalb County Courthouse
The Vietnam memorial is behind the Civil War Memorial in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse.
Jimmie Ray Harrison (the marker and some sources say Jimmy, but most public records have an "ie" at the end of his name) was born in Greeneville, Tennessee, and lived in DeKalb, which was listed as his hometown on official records. He served for 10 years in the U.S. Army and was a paratrooper in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Division. He was killed in action on March 14, 1968; he later received a posthumous promotion to master sergeant. A notice about his death in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle said that his wife, Marilyn, lived in Tennessee at the time of his death. He is buried at Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in Greeneville. His son, Larry, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Lebanon and Grenada, is also buried at Andrew Johnson Cemetery.
Warrant Officer Richard Arthur Henke, a native of Clare, died on May 13, 1970, when the Huey helicopter he was piloting crashed near Quang Ngai Airfield due to engine failure. He and three crewmates perished in the crash. Henke, who had turned 20 two weeks before his death, is buried in Sycamore's Elmwood Cemetery.
Lance Corporal Richard Lynn Jossendal was one of 59 passengers killed when a KC-130 aircraft carrying Marines from Hong Kong to Vietnam veered off the runway at Kai Tak airport and crashed into Yautong Bay. Jossendal was buried in the First Lutheran Church Cemetery in the tiny village of Lee, in southwestern DeKalb County.
George Delmer Kinnett was killed on June 7, 1969, in Da Nang by Viet Cong rocket fire. He was 25. A native of DeKalb, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1966 and at the time of his deployment in Vietnam was living in Sycamore with his wife, Janice. He is buried in Sycamore's Elmwood Cemetery.
Corporal Jerome Dean Kupperschmidt was born in DeKalb and he was living in Sandwich when he enlisted in the Marines, according to official documents at the time of his death. Kupperschmidt was one of 22 U.S. troops killed in a battle on June 7, 1968 with the North Vietnamese near the Bon Song River in Quang Nam Province. He is buried in Sandwich's Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Charles Francis Landers was born in DeKalb and graduated from DeKalb High in 1964. Pfc. Landers had been an Army infantryman in Vietnam for less than a month when he died on June 16, 1968, of wounds suffered when a bunker he was in collapsed. He was 22 years old. He is buried in St. John the Baptist Cemetery near Somonauk, Illinois, in neighboring LaSalle County.
DeKalb native James Phillip Mason was eight days past his 19th birthday when the helicopter he was flying in crashed at sea near Vietnam on October 17, 1968. The three-man helicopter crew had stopped at the U.S.S. Eversole to pick up Specialist Mason and return him to his Army unit. Soon after departing the ship, the helicopter crashed about 500 meters away. Two of the crew members were rescued and survived; the third died, and his body was found near shore about 10 days later. Mason's body was never recovered, and he was presumed dead. He is honored with a commemorative stone at Fairview Cemetery in DeKalb.
Michael Jack Moon was a native of Peru, Indiana, and moved at age 9 to DeKalb, where he graduated from DeKalb High in 1965. He joined the Navy a few years later while attending Eastern Illinois University and served in Vietnam as a captain on a helicopter crew. Moon accidentally drowned on May 28, 1968. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in his hometown of Peru, in central Indiana about 200 miles southeast of DeKalb.
Captain Donald Jackson Morris was killed when the aircraft he was test piloting crashed in Thailand on May 20, 1970. The Sandwich native was 31 years old. A graduate of Sandwich High, Capt. Morris had enlisted in the Air Force while attending the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, and had been stationed in Thailand as an instructor. He was survived by his wife and two young sons, who were living in Louisiana at the time. He is buried in Pineville, Louisiana, at Greenwood Memorial Park.
Pfc. Robert Junior Neal was killed by an enemy explosive device on February 22, 1968, about 5 weeks after his 18th birthday. Originally from near Poplar Creek, Missouri, Neal later moved to Sandwich, where he attended high school. He is buried in Brown Chapel Cemetery in Broseley, Missouri, which is about 15 miles southeast of Poplar Creek and about 430 miles south of Sandwich.
Pfc. James Robert Page was wounded by gunfire during a fierce battle near Con Thien in Vietnam on May 13, 1967. He died as a result of that injury about four weeks later, 11 days before his 20th birthday, at Clark Hospital in the Philippines. Originally from Clayton, Missouri, he later moved to Genoa, about eight miles north of Sycamore. He enlisted in the Marines in 1966. He is buried at Greenville Cemetery in Greenville, Missouri.
Jessie Gerald Poe grew up in the small town of Kingston, about 10 miles north of Sycamore, and graduated from Kingston-Genoa High School in 1966. An Army sergeant, Poe was killed by an explosive device during battle in Binh Dinh Province on June 2, 1968, about two weeks prior to his 20th birthday. He is buried in his hometown in Kingston Cemetery.
Arthur Gene Richardson's hometown is listed as Rochelle, in Ogle County to the west of DeKalb, but he attended school in Kirkland, in northwestern DeKalb County. After graduating high school, he attended NIU for one semester before enlisting in the Marines in 1958 to become a naval aviator. He was sent to Vietnam in 1963, not long after getting married. First Lt. Richardson was killed on October 8, 1963, when the UH-34D helicopter he was co-piloting was shot down by hostile fire during a search-and-rescue mission; another UH-34D was also taken down around the same time, and 11 U.S. other servicemen were killed that day. He is buried in Lawnridge Cemetery in Rochelle.
Steven Gary Williams of DeKalb was a grader operator with the Army's Republic of Vietnam Engineer Command. Williams was killed on July 3, 1971, in an accident on his grader near Phan Thiet. Williams had graduated from DeKalb High School in 1969 and was a month shy of his 20th birthday. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery.
Credits. This page was last revised on January 29, 2026. It was originally submitted on October 3, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 1,003 times since then and 92 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 3, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.
