For 51-year-old James Duke, the name James Pendergrass was always a mystery.
The Arapahoe, Okla., native had heard about the man, but never met him — he died within the first 40 days of his first tour of duty in Vietnam early in 1969.
Duke, a security officer for a Veterans’ nursing home in Clinton, Okla., was part of the Shotgun Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club that visited Siouxland Freedom Park late last month, and when he saw the replica of the Vietnam Memorial, it piqued his curiosity.
“I didn’t realize the memorial was there until after we got in,” he said in a phone interview recently. “I had never given it a thought until we got there.”
The information he had about Pendergrass was limited — his mother didn’t talk much about the man, who started his tour in Tay Ninh on Jan. 12, 1969 and died 40 days later.
“He was only in the country a little more than a month,” Duke said. “He was sent through boot camp and hit the ground and he didn’t make it.”
Duke got some information from volunteers at the park about Pendergrass and found his name toward the bottom of section W-32 on the wall’s west half.
The discovery caught him by surprise.
“I can’t tell you what I thought,” he said when asked his reaction. “I’m not an emotional person, but I completely broke down. Up until then it was just a story that I was told. I was raised by another man and had always been told about James Pendergrass. Aubt all I knew was his name.”
Pendergrass was from Broken Arrow, Okla., and served in the Army’s 25th infantry division. He died, the casualty of arms fire, on Feb. 21, 1969 in Tay Ninh.
Duke, a Marine who served three tours in Iraq and four more in Afghanistan before settling into a career in law enforcement, said that while he was grateful to have found Pendergrass’ name, he still has plenty of questions.
“In some ways it was closure, but I don’t know if I’ve got more questions,” he said.
