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Sgt. Roy Vernon
Rawlin
Jan. 29, 1948 - Aug.
11, 1969
Chico
Roy Rawlin was born
in Grants Pass.
Oregon and later moved
to Chico where he graduated with the class of 1966 from Chico
Senior High School. When he was younger he was a champion roller
skater and competed in meets all over Northern California.
After high school
Rawlin moved up to Chester. He was working in the woods with
a logging company when he received his draft notice.
Rawlins went into
the Airborne, and he had just 11 months left in the Army when
he was shipped to Vietnam. He fought in the bloody Battle of
Hamburger Hill, where he was mortally wounded. That same day
he wrote a letter to his mother describing his unit’s situation
in Vietnam: “We’re Out here fighting their crummy war while
the Vietnamese Army is kicking back on our fire bases.”
In the same letter
he mentioned that he saw a local man die when a hand grenade
he threw bounced off a tree and rolled back and blew up.
Roy Rawlin lived 11
days after he was wounded. He was 21 when he died.
Chico News & Review, May 26, 1988
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