This is the third book in the Collin County Freedom Fighters series written by Foster in partnership with the history museum, the first two being about World War I and the Korean War. These books tell the stories of the young men and women of Collin County, Texas, who went off to serve their country and didn’t come home.
Thirty-five young Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines died during the Vietnam War, with 23 killed in the combat zone or died of wounds. After hundreds of hours of research, Foster, a US Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, tells each man’s story of where he came from, where he served and how he died.
The first combat casualty happened in 1966, a 17-year-old Marine machine gunner, and the last in 1971, a helicopter crewman, who was listed as “Missing in Action” for 32 years until his remains were discovered in 2004.
Collin County has had two Medal of Honor recipients, Audie Murphy in WWII and Russell Steindam in Vietnam. Steindam’s amazing story of self-sacrifice is detailed in the book. Most of the young men were just out of high school, including football stars, choirboys, a rodeo rider and the world’s first jet ace who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
Even though factual in its content, the book is anything but dull. Foster, who served as a young, enlisted Marine in Vietnam, tells the stories in a simple way that anyone would understand, with a personal touch of someone who has been there and done that. In 2007, Foster’s first book on Vietnam, One Day as a Lion – True Stories from the Vietnam War, was published. This book was the basis behind the building of the Veterans Memorial Park in McKinney. Since then more details have emerged and more names have surfaced, therefore a need to readdress the subject.
There are 420 names on the Veterans Memorial “Wall of Honor”. Foster’s goal, as is the Collin County History Museum, is to put into print each person’s story, so that all those young heroes will never be forgotten.
The Collin County Freedom Fighters series will be available at every school and public library in Collin County, and is available for purchase at the Collin County History Museum, on Amazon.com or at Collin County Freedom Fighters, www.ccfreedomfighters.com
For more information contact Mary Carole Strother at the Collin County History Museum at 972-542-9457 or email Ronnie D. Foster at ccfreedomfighters@msn.com.