Archive for the ‘Garage Sale Photos’ Category

“On Sunday afternoon, 19 Feb 1969, I had the misfortune of hearing Early, SFC Robert Wimp, and Captain Edwin Ackerman voluntarily charge into the rice paddies with a small SVN popular force team to repel a VC patrol.  I listened to them courageously engage in a fierce fire fight, and request helicopter gun ship support.  Then all at once I heard them caught up in an ambush with no way to escape.”

transcribed by Sherry Stocking Kline
Monday, May 31, 2010

Some time ago at a yard sale (it’s that time of year again!) I picked up a box of photographs and other memorabilia, and I spent quite a bit of time then and a few times since, figuring out the family names, finding out what names were on the photos and also learning what cities and towns the photographs were taken in. Tucked in with the photos was the following clipping.

This tiny news article contains heartbreaking news…

Death Notice of Sgt. Robert Wimp

On the Paper:

Deaths and Services

Sgt. Robert Wimp

Mrs. Fred Newland received news of the death of her brother, Sgt. Robert Wimp, in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, on Thursday, Feb 20.

Sgt. Wimp had just returned last week after an emergencey leave when he was called home by the death of his father.

Sgt. Wimp would have completed his second tour of duty this year.

What a heartbreaking news is contained in this tiny little note. Mrs. Fred Newland and her brother had just buried their father, and then Sgt. Wimp had returned to South Vietnam to finish his tour of duty when he was killed, leaving Mrs. Newland to mourn the loss of her father and her brother.

Is the “69” Part of the Newspaper’s Date?

This piece of the paper does not have a date on it, for sure, but I think perhaps the little “69” shown in the upper left hand corner next to the “Deaths and Services” Title might be part of the newspaper’s date.

This short article doesn’t say, but it certainly leads you to wonder if Sgt. Wimp’s loss played a role in his death in some way.

Hopefully, after our KCGS Conference date is past, I will have time to research this box of “orphan treasures” and get them to a good home.

And if someone reading this is part of Sgt. Wimp’s family, please leave me a note!

Additional info: Ah, I love genealogy friends!  What you don’t know, or know how to do, they kindly step in and provide!  Carol Yates Wilkerson, of http://ipentimento.com, family history and genealogy, looked it up on the Vietnam Wall site and said that he did die in 1969. http://thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=56872 Now, to find some living family members!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
11 April 2010

Just over a year ago, I picked up a box of photographs at a yard sale.  (they did not belong to the family who was selling them)

Off and on, I’ve worked on trying to locate information about the ‘inhabitants’ of this box, researching the census, etc., but lately I’ve just not taken/made/had the time to do much with it.

So I’ve decided to start posting some of the photographs and other info here, on the off chance that someone will find the posts and I can at last re-unite at least some of the memories with the family who will love to have them.

The names in the box include Wimp and Newland, and the towns include Blackwell, Oklahoma, Wellington, Kansas, and Eads, Colorado.

Wilma Erma Ford Marries Fred Walter Newland

And yes, if we are able to re-unite these family treasures with their family, I’ll be posting about it right here!