VETERANS DAY Salute 2014
Love always,
Lary
DENISE FREITAG BURDETTE/The Register
Terrie Fogle Buntin, Aurora, holds a photo of her late brother, Lary Fogle, along with letters he wrote, recently found in a file cabinet at the VFW in Aurora. By Denise Freitag Burdette Assistant Editor newsroom@registerpublications.com
ove always. Your loving son. Or sometimes, he simply wrote Love, Lary. The love for his family was clear in every letter. Terrie Fogle Buntin, Aurora, wishes her brother could express that love in person, but hopes the letters are a chance to know her brother a little better.
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She was only six years old when Lary Fogle was the first Dearborn County resident to die in the Vietnam War Dec. 20, 1965, four days after his 18th birthday. A student at Lawrenceburg Consolidated High School, Fogle decided to enlist in the Army early, to do his duty, so he could return home as soon as possible to help his family. “He sent money home all the time to mom and dad to help take care of us kids,” said Buntin. Although she has some first-hand memories of her brother, a lot of what she knows is what other people have told her through the years, she said. Then one day, while visiting the library in Rising Sun to see her brother’s uniform on display, she mentioned she had never seen any of the letters written by her brother while he was in the Army. Three days later, Vietnam veteran and Lary Fogle’s LCHS classmate, P.G. Gentrup, Rising Sun, who prepared the uniform for display, received a call from Vietnam veteran Marty Sizemore, Moores Hill. A stack off Lary Fogle’s letters had been found in the back of a file cabinet at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Aurora, said Gentrup. It was like Lary was listening when his sister said she had never seen any of his letters, he said. Butin said she knew letters from her brother exsisted, some had been given to a man who said he was going to write a book, she said. Gentrup also knows of some other letters that were donated to a veterans project in Indiana. In the letters found at the VFW, Fogle describes everything from his arrival to basic training to recuperating from an injury he received when he was hit by a .30-caliber round in the chest. A saber tooth he was wearing around his neck save him from further injury that time around.
devoted big brother Some of the more touching moments, however, are when Fogle takes a moment to write to his youngest of his 12 siblings, Terrie, nicknamed “Mitey Mite” and little brother Tommy, nicknamed “Tom Tom.” Tommy was like his kid. Tommy had cancer of the hip
and doctors said he may never walk. Lary made sure he walked and even brought him his first bike, said Buntin. They were very close. Tommy is the one who has most of Lary’s stuff. He has entire wall dedicated to him in his house, she said. Buntin added she received her nickname “Mitey Mite” because she was born a premature baby. But “the doctor said with that set of lungs she would make it.” He was always thinking of everyone else,” said Gen-
trup. He recalls hearing that in one of Fogle’s donated letters he asked his parents to take out a $300 loan from a local bank. He would pay on the loan, but he wanted to make sure the kids had a great Christmas, he said. Although she has limited personal memories of her brother, she does remember the day two men came to the door to tell their father, Herbert, that Fogle had died See LARY, Page 5