NE Iowa Marine Killed in 1969 Honored by Hometown

FAYETTE, Iowa (AP) — A northeast Iowa community has dedicated a memorial bench that honors a Marine who died more than 46 years ago while serving his county in what was South Vietnam.

Friends and family gathered at a ceremony Saturday in Fayette and reminisced about their friend and brother, PFC James Lee. He was 21 on March 16, 1969, when the vehicle he was in struck a land mine.

Larry Webb, who was among those who planned and raised money for the memorial, says "it's always stuck in my head that we should do something like this for Jim. ... All towns should be doing something like this for those that were lost in Vietnam."