By Kevin Shannahan
Private First Class Charles Doty of Natchitoches died in battle a bit over 50 years ago on Nov. 8, 1967 on Hill 724 in Kontum Province, South Vietnam. He was a member of the 4th Infantry Division and had been in Vietnam for only a few months when he was killed. He was 21 years old, one of the 58,220 lives cut all too short by the Vietnam War. He is buried in Campti’s Community Cemetery and is on panel 29E, line 48 of the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
The construction of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall was finished in November 13, 1982, and is one of the most popular destinations for visitors hosting approximately 5.6 million visitors each year. The Vietman Veteran’s Memorial Foundation is continuing its mission of education and rememberance with “The Wall of Faces” project that seeks to have a photograph of each casualty named on the wall. It is a massive undertaking. The volunteer I spoke with has spent the past 7 years collecting over 6,000 photographs. PFC Charles Doty was the last one from Natchitoches Parish, one of 10 remaining in Louisiana. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Pastor Steven Harris, Mr. Douglas Westmoreland, and Mr. Ed Ward. They were able to find Mr. Doty’s family in less than a day. I would also like to thank Mr. James Doty for graciously allowing us to send in his brother’s photograph. Each man from Natchitoches Parish who died in Vietnam will now have a photograph to go along with his name.
One hundred and four years, almost to the day, before Charles Doty fell in battle in Vietnam, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. It reads in part:
“…It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth…”
Let all of us resolve to do something every day to make our community and nation a little better, to take President Lincoln’s injunction to “…take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion…” to heart.
The Natchitoches Parish Journal will purchase a memorial paver in Charles Doty’s memory in the Natchitoches Parish Veterans’ Memorial Park.
Can pavers still be purchased by the general public? If so, who should be contacted?
Yes, we want all our Natchitoches Parish Veterans to be honored with a brick. You may obtain one by email at dbeth@wildblue.net or by phone at 379-2707. I am the chairperson of the paver committee for the park. The only qualification for a brick is that the veteran lived or lives in Natchitoches Parish during his/her lifetime. You will need a copy of the veteran’s DD214 or a picture of a Veteran gravemarker. Copies of DD214’s can be obtained sometimes from the Clerk of Court if the Veteran returned here after service.
good job Kevin.