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Below are an article about Greg Keller's death and
his obituary. Both appeared in his hometown newspaper and were provided by
the Whittier (Calif.) Public Library. Ironically, the article about his death
was printed beside a UPI story about the 1st Marine Division beginning to
pull out of Vietnam. That story is also on this page, below the stories about
Greg.
Whittier (Calif.) Daily News July 24, 1970
Local GI
Killed In
Viet War
An East Whittier youth has become the 120th
area casualty in Southeast Asian fighting and the 42nd death from
Whittier.
Gregory Keller, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Garland E. Keller, 16118 Sharonhill Dr., Whittier was killed Sunday while
on patrol in Vietnam. Keller, a private, was assigned to a Marine civilian
action patrol.
A 1969 graduate of Lowell High School, Keller
was an outstanding wrestler and a member of the varsity football team. He
joined the Marines in September, 1969, and departed for Vietnam in March of
this year.
Keller was high series point man in his boot
camp unit and received the Military Order of World Wars award, the
Leatherneck award and the Blues award while still in boot camp.
A memorial fund to provide a perpetual
scholarship at Lowell High School will be established and members of the
family ask that contributions be sent to Coach John Yurkovich at the high
school.
A memorial service is being planned and the
date and time will be announced later.
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Whittier (Calif.) Daily News July 27, 1970, Page 7
Obituaries
KELLER - Gregory Keller, 19, of 16118 Sharonhill Dr., Whittier, was
killed July 19 while on patrol in Vietnam.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Memorial
Chapel, Rose Hills, with interment in Rose Hills Memorial Park. Arrangements
were made by Rose Hills Mortuary.
Keller, a private, was high series point man
in his boot camp unit and received the Military Order of World Wars award,
the Leatherneck award and the Blues award while still in boot camp.
A 1969 graduate of Lowell High School, he was
a wrestler and a member of the varsity football team.
He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Garland E. Keller; brothers, Arthur and Edward; a sister, Karen Keller;
grandmother, Elsie Tell; and grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Mann.
A memorial fund to provide a perpetual
scholarship at Lowell High School will be established and contributions may
be sent to Coach John Yurkovich at the high school.
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Whittier (Calif.) Daily News July 24, 1970
First Division Marines
Begin Viet Withdrawal
SAIGON (UPI) - Lead elements of the U.S. 1st Marine Division have begun
leaving Vietnam as part of President Nixon’s "Phase Four" withdrawal of
50,000 more American GIs from the war zone, military spokesmen said
today.
An official announcement said Leathernecks
from two engineer battalions and one bridge company assigned to the division
are in the process of leaving Da Nang for Camp Pendleton. The three units
total 1,625 men.
Military sources said some 1st Marine Division
units will be kept in the war zone past Oct. 15, the date President Nixon
has set for completion of the fourth phase of his so-called "Vietnamization"
program.
President Nixon has promised to remove 100,000
more Americans between mid-October and the spring of 1971, leaving only
support troops as the South Vietnamese army takes over the fighting.
(The remainder of the article is missing)
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Read an account of Greg Keller's death:
July 18, 1970
Read another account of the incident:
A deadly lapse in security
Read the official report of the incident
Read a friend's tribute to Greg Keller
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