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Larry Welsh



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MIssing For
Years: Days: Hours: Mins: Secs:


Name: Larry Don Welsh
D.O.B: 16 June 1947
Home of Record: Kansas City, Ks
Date of Loss: 11 February 1974
Country Of Loss: South Vietnam
Coordinates of loss:112642N / 1060200E
Status: Missing In Action / BNR





Name: Larry Don Welsh
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit:
Date of Birth: 16 Jun 1947
Home City of Record: Kansas City KS
Date of Loss: 07 January 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 112642N 1060200E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: Larry Welsh is the oldest of four children born to William and
Rosemary Welsh of Kansas City, Kansas. He has one brother and two sisters.

Larry grew up in Kansas City on a small acreage on the west side of the city,
and enjoyed working with the calves, pigs, chickens and especially horses. He
was a Boy Scout and earned the God and Country award, and is a Life Scout. He is
a Christian and a member of Sunset Hills Christian Church. Before going into the
Army, he worked as a switchman for Santa Fe Railroad. He entered the service in
January 1968 and was sent to Vietnam in December 1968 as a platoon sergeant.

Larry's platoon was engaged in a firefight with the Viet Cong on January 7, 1969
northwest of Tay Ninh City, Tay Ninh Province, about 8 miles from the border of
South Vietnam and Cambodia. Larry, slightly injured by fragmentation wounds,
removed his shirt and told another wounded soldier that he was going for help.
The soldier then observed Welsh walk down a path toward an area where artillery
shells were falling.

Returning to the battle scene the next day, searchers found one man dead and a
wounded man hiding in a hollow log. The wounded man told the searchers what he
knew about Larry. The search team found Welsh's eyeglasses, wallet, shirt and
the watch with the silver chain wristband that he wore, but Larry was not seen
again. He was the only man unaccounted for in Vietnam on that day.

Larry's parents have written letters and sent packages over the years, but they
have been returned unopened. They say, "We always felt that Larry was taken
prisoner by the Viet Cong. The last time anybody saw him, he was alive."

Larry's young wife has since remarried, and his parents do what they can to
bury their sorrow and uncertainty. Over the years, they have, to their complete
frustration, learned there is little they can do. One cannot simply travel to
Vietnam to try and find someone the Vietnamese say does not exist. The U.S.
seems to place a low priority on the return of the missing from Vietnam.

Since the war ended, however the U.S. Government has conducted over "250,000
interviews" and pored over "several million documents" relating to Americans
prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Many authorities,
including a former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, have concluded that
many Americans are still alive in captivity today.

Whether Larry Welsh is among them is unknown. Santa Fe Railway is still holding
his job. Even though many have forgotten, Larry's friends and family have not.
It's time we brought our men home.