Kellenbenz's Letter from Vietnam, 1969

Kellenbenz, 1963 Manitowoc Lincoln graduate

“Sorry I missed you yesterday.  I was busy. Say I’ve been told it’s a good idea to number yours and mine letters so that if one gets lost in the mail we’ll know it.  I’ll call this #1. …”

That began the first letter Lieutenant Barry C. Kellenbenz wrote to his wife Karen while serving in Vietnam on January 18, 1969.

“Want to know how we live here – well … if you have time you build a hooch [thatched hut]of ponchos, put your air mattress on the ground and wrap up in your poncho liner (like a thick quilt – pretty warm), put plastic on one end to keep the rain out.  And you might carry a light nylon hammock or you wrap up in your poncho liner and poncho and just lie down on the ground…”

Barry was born on May 1, 1945 in Australia and moved to Manitowoc County later that year, where the family settled in Saint Nazianz.  The family moved to Manitowoc in 1947 and after graduating from Lincoln High School in 1963, he attended the University of Wisconsin –Manitowoc and Madison campuses.  Barry married Karen Hornyak at St. Ann Catholic Church in 1966. He began his service to the military on January 14, 1967 and graduated from Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia a year later before being assigned to Fort Dix, New Jersey. The Manitowoc Herald Times, Tuesday, January 21, 1969 edition writes “In letters home he said he was in line for a promotion to first lieutenant.”

Barry had been in Vietnam less than a month when on the morning of January 19, 1969, he died not only serving our country but trying to save a fellow soldier.  As an announcement of his death describes “He died of injuries inflicted by the enemy during an attack on the Village of Lang Ren, Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam early on the morning of January 19, 1969. During the firefight, a Soldier became wounded outside his bunker. He valiantly tried two times to rescue the man to no avail. On the third attempt he was killed.”

It is in Barry’s honor, along with 24 other Manitowoc County heroes who gave their lives during the Vietnam War, that we remember today.