November 11, 2007
Remembering Iredell’s unsung heroes
By O.C. Stonestreet
The great English poet John Milton (1608 to 1674), is mostly remembered for his book-length epic poem, “Paradise Lost.” Milton also penned many shorter works, one of which was the sonnet, “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,” in which Milton speaks of his own total loss of sight. The last line in the sonnet is particularly memorable and fitting on this Veterans Day: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Those who have served in the military know you go where the decision-makers want you to go, and there you serve until they want you elsewhere. Everyone in the military is not on the front line, facing the enemy eye to eye. Much time is spent in training and waiting and then training and waiting some more.
Today, being Veterans Day, it is an appropriate time to remember six Iredell County men who served in the Armed Forces of the United States who died during the Vietnam War, but not in Vietnam, or as a result of injuries received there. The names of these six enlisted men are not among those inscribed on the Vietnam Monument in front of the Iredell County Hall of Justice in Statesville.
Pvt. Thomas Barry Gilleland, U.S. Army
Private Gilleland, a 1965 graduate of Statesville High School, died of pneumonia while in basic training at Ft. Bragg. He had been in the Army for eight weeks. In the high school annual “The Trail” his senior year, it noted Gilleland had been on the junior varsity football team, described him as “one of SHS’s Tom Sawyers” and ended with the words, “Why worry? It will happen anyway.”
At the time of his death he was 20 years old and unmarried. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Gilleland of Statesville, his paternal grandmother and a brother and a sister. He is buried in the Iredell Memorial Gardens south of Statesville.
Sgt. Barry Quenten Ford, U.S. Air Force
At the time of his death in September 1969, Sgt. Barry was stationed at an air base near Madrid, Spain. He lived in an off-base apartment building with his wife, Julie, and 1-year-old daughter, Tammi. Sgt. Ford was a jet mechanic serving with the 401st Field Maintenance Squadron.
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Ford of Mooresville, he was a 1965 graduate of Mooresville High School. He had served on air bases in Michigan, Missouri and Florida before being assigned to Spain and had recently re-enlisted after four more years of service.
Sgt. Ford died in his sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty water heater. Ford was survived by his wife and daughter, his parents and a brother. He was 23 years old.
Ford is buried in the cemetery of Prospect Presbyterian Church near Mooresville.
Pfc. Thomas Arnold Loyd, U.S. Army
Private Loyd was 21 years old when he died in August 1968 in a motorcycle accident in rural Harnett County. He had been visiting family and friends in Statesville and when he found he had car trouble and decided to ride his old motorcycle back to Fort Bragg. He was within a few miles of the sprawling military base when the accident happened.
Pvt. Loyd had been “back in the world” for two months, following a tour of duty in Vietnam, where he had served in the 101st Airborne Division. He had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he received in Vietnam.
PFC Loyd was survived by his parents, the Rev. R.C. and Mrs. Cordia Sprinkle Loyd, and by five sisters and six brothers. He was 21 years old and a graduate of Iredell’s Central High School.
Private Loyd is buried in the cemetery of New Prospect Baptist Church.
Yeoman 3rd Class Richard Norman Summers, U.S. Navy
At the time of his death, Yeoman Summers was aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion (SSN 589) when it went missing while returning from a training exercise in the Mediterranean in May 1968. Petty Officer Summers was survived by his parents, Charles and Hila Summers, three sisters and three brothers. He was a 1964 graduate of Scotts High School.
Almost 40 years after the loss of the Scorpion, controversy still exists as to the cause of the loss of the ship and its crew of 99 officers and men. None of the bodies of the crew were recovered. There is, however, a memorial marker to Yeoman 3rd Class Summers in the Iredell Memorial Gardens.
The cause of the loss of the Scorpion remains a mystery, with theories ranging from defective torpedoes to the Scorpion being rammed by a Soviet submarine in retaliation for the sinking of a Soviet sub by our Navy.
Corporal Harry Wayne Honeycutt, U.S. Army
Born in Mooresville, Corporal Honeycutt was a 1964 graduate of Troutman High School. His high school annual noted he had been a school bus driver, had been a member of the Future Farmers of America for three years and observed that he was “always carefree” and “ready for fun anytime,” as he was “one of the roving kind.”
Corporal Honeycutt died in an automobile accident in May 1968 while he was stationed in Germany. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry P. Honeycutt of Troutman, and by a brother and a sister.
Corporal Honeycutt is buried in the cemetery of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, Troutman. He was 22 years old.
Sergeant Howard Joseph Moore, U.S. Army
Sergeant Moore was born in Pennsylvania on Sept. 19, 1946, but grew up in Statesville. He graduated from high school at Boys Town, Nebraska.
In the Army, he was a heavy equipment mechanic. Sgt. Moore died in November 1968 at the age of 21, of injuries received in a vehicle accident in Graffenwhor, Germany.
He was the son of Ruth Carson Moore and William S. Moore of Statesville. Besides his parents, Howard was survived by three brothers and five sisters.
Sergeant Moore is buried near Philadelphia, Penn.
