Foundation searching for a vet's family

Moses Lake paratrooper died in 1969

COLUMBUS, Ga. - A representative with the 173d Airborne Brigade National Memorial Foundation is looking for the family of a former Moses Lake resident, paratrooper Robert R. Bradley.

Bradley died on April 19, 1969, while serving with the D/4/503rd Infantry in Vietnam, according to spokesperson Raymond C. Ramirez.

Bradley will be honored on a memorial with 1,642 soldiers who died in Vietnam and 69 soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The memorial's dedication is scheduled for fall of 2009 in Columbus, Ga., at Fort Benning.

The foundation is looking for Bradley's family and the relatives of other slain service people to tell them about the memorial and to place them on the foundation's mailing list, stated Ramirez.

"The 'sole mission' of the 173d Air Airborne Brigade National Memorial Foundation is to build a 173d Memorial 'on a piece of American soil,'" according to Ramirez.

Bradley's unit was based in Fort Campbell, Ky., and deployed to Vietnam on June 6, 1966, from the Oakland Army Terminal.

Bradley's unit was the first U.S. Army ground combat unit to operate in I Corps from October 1966 to December 1966. The unit received the Presidential Unit Citation, according to Ramirez.

A Robert Richard Bradley of Moses Lake was reported to have died a hostile death while serving in the Army, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Robert Richard Bradley's name was listed on a traveling Vietnam Wall memorial, which came to Moses Lake in June.

The foundation's area contact person is Craig Ford, who can be reached at 425-743-0576 or via e-mail, cford1503@comcast.net.