RUGBY For many years Daryl Kuhnhenn wore a bracelet with the name Maj. Thomas Beyer on it. The bracelet carried the date that Beyer, a native of Fargo, was shot down in Vietnam in the summer of 1968.
In December, Kuhnhenn attended Beyer's funeral in Fargo and presented the bracelet that he had worn for many years to Beyer's wife, Karen, and the Beyers' daughter, Sandra, and son, Steven.
Kuhnhenn, of Rugby, got the bracelet in the early 1980s. He wore it nearly all the time until the last couple years because it interferred with his work.
Kuhnhenn had served in Vietnam. He got to Vietnam June 24, 1968; Beyer was shot down close to that same time. Kuhnhenn chose to wear the bracelet with Beyer's name because of the closeness of the dates of those two events his arrival in that country and when Beyer was shot down.
"Beyer's wife was born and raised in Leeds which is 30 miles from here," Kuhnhenn added.
Kuhnhenn served in the Army in Vietnam with a transportation unit. He was there for a year and 76 days
Fact Box
Vietnam Wall
to visit Rugby
RUGBY The traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall will be in Rugby Aug. 4-8. It will be displayed at the high school baseball field.
The wall is being sponsored there by the Clarence Larson Post of the American Legion in Rugby.
"It's designed for people who can't go to (Washington) D.C. to see the real one so everyone has a chance to pay homage to guys who didn't come home," said Daryl Kuhnhenn, a Vietnam veteran from Rugby.
There is no charge to visit the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall.
When he heard that Beyer's remains had been recovered and identified, and there would be a funeral in Fargo, he planned to attend.
According to his obituary, Beyer was born in Fargo, where he was raised and educated. He and his wife, Karen, were married in Fargo in 1963. He was in the ROTC program at North Dakota State University, Fargo, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He went through pilot's training at Vance Air Force Base, Okla, and flew B-52s out of Loring AFB, Maine, before being transferred to Chu Lai, Vietnam. As an 0-2 forward air controller, he was shot down in Vietnam.
Forward air controllers, or FACs, in the Southeast Asia conflict were rated pilots whose job it was to coordinate air-ground operations.
Kuhnhenn went to Beyer's funeral as part of the Vietnam Vets/Legacy Motorcycle Group. "We're from all over but belong to Chapter A in Bismarck," he said.
"I would have gone (to the funeral) even if not part of the group," he added.