KIER, LARRY GENE Remains Identified 03/08/02
Name: Larry Gene Kier Rank/Branch: E3/US Army Unit: 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division Date of Birth: 29 September 1949 (Shenandoah IA) Home City of Record: Omaha NE Date of Loss: 06 May 1970 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 163840N 1065600E (YD081411) Status (in 1973): Missing In Action Category: 2 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground Refno: 1613
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 2002.
Other Personnel In Incident: Refugio T. Teran (missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Every week while he was in Vietnam, Refugio Teran got a package from his mother containing 30 pounds of oatmeal, canned fruit and sugar, which Teran gave to a Vietnamese family near the base where he was stationed.
On May 4, "in the world", National Guardsmen had been called in to control rioting at Kent State and then Governor Ronald Reagan ordered California universities closed for the rest of the week.
During the night of May 5, 1970 (12 hours in time behind Vietnam time), Mrs. Anna Teran woke up screaming, knowing she would lose her son.
On May 6, 1970, PFC Larry G. Kier and PFC Refugio T. Teran were assigned to separate companies of the 101st Airborne Division as riflemen defending an artillery fire support base in South Vietnam.
At about 0500 hours on May 6, 1970, Viet Cong forces overran a guard station at an ammunition dump near Henderson Hill in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, killing 33 Americans. Kier and Teran were last seen running toward a barricade, and when not seen again, were presumed dead. Kier's position was reportedly hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), and then napalm ignited in his location which was leaking from a nearby position. PFC Teran had been located in another firing position along the camp perimeter.
The next day, a graves registration detail collecting bodies was unable to find any trace of Kier and Teran. Five others in the unit who had been believed dead were found alive, but injured.
When 591 Americans were released from Vietnam in 1973, Kier and Teran were not among them. There has been no word surface about them since they disappeared.
Since 1973, nearly 10,000 reports have been given to the U.S. Government regarding Americans still in Southeast Asia. Some have withstood the "closest scrutiny" possible, and cannot be disputed. There is very strong reason to believe that Americans are still held captive in Southeast Asia today.
Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of the nearly 2500 Americans who did not come home from Vietnam can easily be accounted for, dead or alive. We, as a nation, must turn our immediate attention to those who are alive and do everything possible to secure their freedom.
===============================
LEAGUE UPDATE: March 7, 2002
AMERICANS ACCOUNTED FOR: According to the Department of Defense, there are now 1,936 Americans still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Most recently, remains jointly recovered in June, 1994, were identified as Air Force Colonels Peter M. Cleary of CT and Leonardo C. Leonor of NY, both listed as MIA October 10, 1972 in North Vietnam. Also recently identified were Army SSGs Larry G. Kier of NB and Rufugio T. Teran of MI, missing in a South Vietnam ground incident since May 6, 1970. Local villagers initially provided remains in August 1992; joint operations resulted in further information and remains. Others recently accounted for include Air Force Col William C. Coltman of PA and LtCol Robert A. Brett, Jr., of OR, missing in Laos since September 29, 1972, with remains jointly recovered August 28, 2000.
=========== The Richardson Funeral Home 03/28/02
Sargeant Larry Gene Kier, Omaha, NE. Company A, 2nd. Battalion 501st. Inafantry 101st Airborne Division
Born Sept. 29, 1949 Died May 6, 1970 Republic of South Vietnam. Positive ID. by DNA. Services will be held at 1:00 P.M. Saturday, March 30th at the Richardson Funeral Home, Box 68, Owingsville, Ky. 40360. Phone (606) 674-2922 Fax (606)674-6620. Burial will follow in the Owingsville Cemetery. Due to limited seating please notify funeral home if you plan to attend. Survived by 1brother,Vern Kier Jr. of Salt Lick, Ky. Also 2 sisters, Verna Curtis of Omaha, Ne. and Sharon Kier of Long Beach, Ca. and 2 nephews.
===================================================
Tuesday, April 2, 2002, Glasgow Daily Times
Family buries soldier killed in Vietnam
OWINGSVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- This Easter weekend, some Kentucky residents were celebrating the life and death of a soldier who was killed while serving his country in Vietnam.
Larry Gene Kier was buried in Owingsville on Saturday, some 30 years after he was killed in Vietnam. Col. Ron Ray officiated the service at Richardson Funeral Home in Bath County, where Kier's brother, Vern, lives.
"It's fitting," Ray said, "that we would celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it is also fitting that we honor a man who gave his life that our nation might live. Larry paid the price for our freedom."
Several hundred people, many of them members of Rolling Thunder -- a group of war veterans that tracks U.S. soldiers considered missing in action, attended the service.
Motorcyclists lined the small town's Main Street to pay homage. Flags flew at half-staff.
Kier, who was a staff sergeant from Omaha, was killed in May 1970 during an early-morning attack involving artillery and napalm about 10 miles northeast of South Vietnam's border with Laos.
Kier was first listed as missing in action, but declared dead in 1978. In August 1991, a Vietnamese resident turned over Kier's partially melted identity card along with some bone fragments to the Army, which contacted Kier's brother to get DNA samples to make a positive identification.
Vern Kier said the ceremony and burial helped him cope with the loss of his brother. About 40 years ago, Vern Kier left Omaha, where his mother raised the brothers after their father died.
Vern Kier was four years older than Larry. He remembers his brother's teen years: "He was a little wild, like boys are. He loved excitement. I always felt like I needed to protect him."