Hometown Heroes Honored // Lyons High School Remembers 14 Who Died in Vietnam War

The flag outside Lyons Township High School flew at half-staffTuesday morning, tugged by a raw wind, under a lowering sky. An AirForce color guard presented the colors, and a student bugler blew"Taps."

As the mournful notes sounded, the clock in the school towerstruck the half hour.

On other mornings, four decades ago, a teenager named Wayne E.Pearson must have looked up often at that tower clock as he hurriedtoward the school in southwest suburban La Grange.

On this day in 1994, Dennis G. Kelly talked about Pearson - andabout 13 other young men who will never grow old.

"They were our friends," said Kelly, superintendent of District204. "They were our brothers, our husbands and our fathers. Theylived just down the street from us. They attended our churches.They shopped in the same stores we do. And they walked the corridorsof Lyons Township High School."

Tuesday's ceremonies were the result of a story that Tom Thomkaread in the Chicago Sun-Times last Oct. 20.

The story reported that the remains of Air Force Maj. Wayne E.Pearson had been found in a Laotian jungle where his Phantom F-4attack fighter went down after being hit by ground fire during astrafing attack on an antiaircraft emplacement on Feb. 22, 1969.They were to be returned to the United States for burial in ArlingtonNational Cemetery.

Pearson had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross,posthumously, for that 60th and final mission. His plane carried aback-seat weapon systems officer, Michael E. Heenan. As the Phantomrushed toward flaming destruction, Pearson pushed a button thatejected Heenan, who was picked up by a helicopter rescue team.

There was no time left for Pearson to eject himself.

In 1969, Tom Thomka was a GI serving with the Second Field Forcein Long Binh. Now 47 and a Chicago architect, Thomka is president ofLoop Chapter 242, Vietnam Veterans of America.

Inspired by the newspaper story, and reading that Pearson hadbeen a Lyons Township graduate, Thomka contacted Kelly and asked ifthe school would accept a memorial from his chapter honoring Pearson.Kelly enthusiastically agreed - and secured funds from his schoolboard for a second memorial honoring all 14 former Lyons Townshipstudents who had died in Vietnam.

And so two memorial plaques were dedicated at the school Tuesday, to be displayed on a wall in one of those hallways wherethe 14 had walked. They honor Wayne E. Pearson (class of 1955);George E. Jones (1960); Anton J. Jecmen (1961); Kevin J. Woods(1962); John A. Gillen, Michael P. Reilly and James D. Stevenson(1963); Gary E. Becker and James C. McPhillips (1966); George Botes,John H. Brancato and Ronald E. Schmidt (1967); Thomas P. Cadieux(1968), and Daniel J. Davidenko (1969).

"A lot has been said about the true mission of the American GIin Vietnam," Thomka said. "But for each man and woman, facing theenemy, it really boiled down to one simple task - whatever it took,to get your buddy home."

And that's what it says on the plaque detailing Pearson's lastflight: "He Got His Buddy Home."