I've just finished editing a story for Sunday, and I could not wait to share it with you so you put aside time on Sunday for it. My eyes are still welling a bit.
Dick Powell is a 1965 grad of Chaney High and a U.S. Marine.
Being a Marine cost him his life on a battlefield in Vietnam 40 years ago.
What he was doing when he died, what his gravesite has been missing since then, and who is getting together in Youngstown on Aug. 28 to honor a hero the way he should will have you talking for days.
And that’s exactly what his classmates and Marines want.
Doug Dobransky of Los Angeles is coming home for this event.
He’s Powell’s classmate and also a veteran.
He told reporter Harold Gwin that he remembers Powell as being small in stature.
“When I began to read the account of how Powell came to be awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest decoration for bravery, I sat there sobbing at visualizing his last minutes (on the battlefield ...)
“Richard was taller and braver than any other person in our class that day,” he said. “His great sacrifice that day should be made known,” he said.
Also coming is Jeff Lannan of Newark, Ohio.
It was in Lannan’s arms that Powell died.
“He was helping everybody, exposing himself. It cost him his life.”
Please read Sunday’s Vindicator for this story. It will be on A1.