Remember...
Ronald Lee Berry
1950-1969
"Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."
Mary Anne Radmacher
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Remember...Ronald Lee Berry
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Ronald Lee Berry was born on March 26, 1950, in Buckhannon, Upshur County, West Virginia. Ronald's parents, Charles Donald Berry and Thelma Rowena Pugh Berry, raised him and his three siblings in Buckhannon, before moving to Rainelle some time later. Ronald's father worked in the lumber industry while his mother stayed home with the children. Ronald was the oldest among his siblings. He has nieces named Hillary and Rita who wish they could have met him.
Ronald grew up in Buckhannon, the county seat of Upshur County, located on the Buckhannon River. Buckhannon is the home of the West Virginia Strawberry Festival and West Virginia Wesleyan College. The West Virginia Strawberry Festival was held each May and became a regular event in 1936, when a professor from the college pointed out that the climate and soils of Upshur County were ideal for delicious strawberries. However, because of World War II raging in Europe, the community had no choice but to put the festival on hold. It was not celebrated again until 1949, but the production of strawberries was promoted during the war years. (Kim Howard, "Buckhannon," e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, 15 November 2016, accessed 29 January 2023, https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/682.)
Later on, Ronald moved to Rainelle, a town on the western edge of Greenbrier County, West Virginia. It sits at the base of Sewell Mountain and Sims Mountain and is bisected by the Meadow River. Rainelle was a company town, built by the Meadow River Lumber Company in 1910. The houses in Rainelle were white painted and plastered and had every necessity before such things were common in the area. ("Rainelle," e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, 3 September 2019, accessed 31 January 2023, https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1976.) His father being in the lumber industry could explain the move to Rainelle.
The United States entered the Vietnam War in 1954. In 1956, U.S. military began training the South Vietnamese forces. In 1960, the Hanoi government formed the National Liberation Front and named the northern forces the Vietcong. On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." In 1965, the U.S. began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing of North Vietnam that continued for three years. By the end of the year, the U.S. had more than 200,000 troops in Vietnam. From 1966 to 1968, support for the war began to plummet, as the nation was divided. At the end of 1968, the number of troops in Vietnam had reached 540,000. ("Vietnam War," History.com website, 29 October 2009, updated 12 January 2023, accessed 20 January 2023, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history#when-did-the-vietnam-war-end; David Walbert, "The Vietnam War: Timeline," Anchor [North Carolina History Online Resource], accessed 29 January 2023, https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/vietnam-war-timeline.)
| In the year 1969, Ronald was drafted into the U.S. Army due to the selective service enacted for the Vietnam War effort. He would train to become a combat engineer, and his rank was private first class. Pfc. Berry started his tour in Vietnam on May 26, 1969. He was assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division. The 1st Infantry Division was one of the first two divisions sent into Vietnam and is also the oldest. As a combat engineer, Pfc. Berry was tasked with scouting and/or disarming immediate environmental hazards, such as mines and booby traps, and destroying paths to locations (with the use of explosives). |  |
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There is not much information detailing the events on August 10, 1969, but Pfc. Berry was a ground casualty of accidental homicide by non-hostile action in the Binh Duong Province of South Vietnam. His remains were sent back to the U.S.; he was only 19 years old. Pfc. Berry was buried at Alexander Anderson Cemetery in Hacker Valley, Webster County, West Virginia. |
He is memorialized at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in Washington, D.C., on Panel 20W, Line 121. He is also memorialized at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial located in Charleston, West Virginia.
For his action and service, Ronald Lee Berry's medals and commendations include the Bronze Star, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal. ("Ronald Lee Berry," The Virtual Wall website, last updated 15 August 2019, accessed 31 January 2023, http://www.virtualwall.org/db/BerryRL02a.htm.)
On February 17, 2022, the West Virginia Legislature introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 48, wherein they directed the Division of Highways to rename the Reese Bridge that carries CR 60/29 over the Meadow River in Greenbrier County as the "U.S. Army PFC Ronald Lee Berry Memorial Bridge" in honor of his sacrifice and dedication to his state and our nation. His family deeply misses him, sharing thoughtful messages and prayers.
Article prepared by David Zheng, Khane Casto, and Oliver Bowles, George Washington High School JROTC
January 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.