By Lindsey Switzler
LEAVING behind five children and a pregnant wife, BYU alumnus Don C. Wood, ’55, was shot down during a bombing mission over Laos in 1966. Later, as Captain Wood’s family watched news reports of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, the still-missing airman’s youngest daughter asked, “Can Daddy come home now?”
As part of a special project begun in 1999, BYU Air Force and Army ROTC cadets have worked to ensure that the sacrifices of the Wood family—and others like them—are not forgotten. More than 300 cadets have helped to chronicle the lives of the 207 BYU students and alumni who died in wars. The biographies are now accessible online at memorialhall.byu.edu.
Cadet Lt. Col. Doug P. Kisby, ’00, a civil engineering graduate student, spent hours producing biographies for the site. “If these men had lived in our day, many would be our friends,” he said. “Having their letters and photos on the Web site helps me understand the circumstances they were fighting in and really brings home the feelings they had.”
