In Memory

Larry Don Garner - Class Of 1968 VIEW PROFILE

Pfc. Larry Don Garner, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Don L. Garner, of 289 W. 2300 N., was killed in action in Vietnam on August 12, 1969 while on a combat operation when hostile force was encountered.

Pfc. Garner was born Oct. 10, 1948, in Ogden; a son of Don L. and Theda Hadlock Garner.

ENTERS ARMY

He entered the Army on Dec. 4, 1968 and received training at Ft. Ord, Calif.

He arrived in Vietnam on May 20, 1969, and was serving with the 1st Cavalry Division as an infantryman.

He was a member of Sunset 1st LDS Ward and was a Graduate of Clearfield High School in 1968.

Surviving are his parents, one brother and one sister, Floyd Garner, Sunset; Mrs. Delmer (Lynette) Ledbetter, Bakersfield, Calif.; a grandfather, Alf Garner, Sunset.

Funeral services were held Saturday, August 23rd at Lindquist and Sons Colonial Chapel with Bishop Ross Shelton of the Sunset 1st Ward officiating. Internment in the Clinton City Cemetery.

Military Service: 

 

Army 

  


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10/11/10 11:12 AM #1    

Michael Hanks (1968)

 

Robert Archer

Childhood Friend

   Larry & I grew up together, in the sleepy little town of Sunset, Utah. I still cherish an old photo, of he and I and some other friends, taken,      in his front yard on our very first day, of 1st grade. We played, together and laughed together. Somewhere, somehow, Larry grew up from a little boy, into a hero. A couple of years ago, the travelling, Wall Memorial, came here, to Indianapolis and I visited it. I touched, his name and cried, for my little friend. Although, our friendship was brief, as children, I'll never forget Larry. He'll always, be my friend and my hero. God bless you and thank you, for protecting my freedom. MSgt., Robert L. Archer, USAF., Ret. Thursday, June 07, 2001

10/04/11 08:47 PM #2    

Larry Holmes (1967)

I knew Larry at CHS.  We weren't close friends, but we were friends, and he is one of the people I remember when I think of CHS.  He was a "good kid", as we said then, or as I would say now, a "good man".  That says a great deal about him, as good men are not common these days.

Larry and I and a couple of others joked a couple times about starting a "Larry" club. We wanted to improve the image of the name.  "Larrys" on TV in the 60's were usually used car salesmen!

Had he lived, I imagine we would have crossed paths again sometime; we both grew up in Sunset and it seems that Sunset people are the ones I usually "bump into", whether in Utah, or California, Oregon, Arizona, or many other places.  Kind of odd, but, that is how it has happened for me.  And Larry is kind of person I would have wanted to continue being friends with.

It is common to make good but vague statements about a man who has passed on, especially when it happens in wartime.  But I don't mean these comments to sound that way; "Good Man" has become a very big and royal name/title to me as the years have passed. 

I was not called to serve in Viet Nam.  The draft stopped at the number before mine.  But I could  not afford college so I later tried to enlist (what was I thinking?), when my cousin, Gary Wheat, a 1966 CHS alumni now living in Chico, CA, who had enlisted in the Navy, urged me to be careful, thin long and hard, and made me realize that the military can do whatever it wants with you once you are in (and, he said, it usually does!  He stayed for 20 years and almost made Captain of his own boat), and there is not much you can do about it if the reason you enlisted is not honored afterward.  (I had tested into the Nuclear Engineering program at MIT; a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from MIT at that time was quite a "big deal").  So I didn't enlist.  Larry Garner and the others from Sunset/CHS who served and especially gave their lives in Viet Nam have always had my deepest respect.  I thought of them often and regularly, and I have felt guilty in a very personal way that they served in my place, allowing me to live in peace and raise a family.  I'm talking too much of myself, but, I assure you, these feelings are real, and have been with me since 1967.  Ultimately, I went through the pre-induction physical and flunked it (what kind of pansy flunks a draft physical!) because I was blind in one eye without my glasses, and they feared I would "shoot my CO in the a**" if I were called upon to "fire my weapon" (exact quotes; I remember them well!)  Larry, Alan U., Danny H., and a few others were often on my mind because of all that.

Larry was not someone who called a lot of attention to himself or made a lot of noise.  He was just, as I've said, a "Good Man".  I began life after CHS with a lot of big dreams, as did many of us, but now, quite a few years later, having experienced a lot of life, I would be very, very content if my eulogy simply said: "he was a good man".  Once we put aside the things of this world in favor of the really important things, those of the next world, there isn't much, if anything, that means more.

So I'll end by repeating one more time:  Larry was a Good Man.


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