David L Pearson

David L Pearson was the first Story County fatality of the Vietnam War. He grew up in Maxwell and graduated in the class of 1965. After graduation he moved to Des Moines. Pearson was drafted by the Army in the fall of 1965. The following year, a month before deploying to Vietnam, he got married at the Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Des Moines. SP4 Pearson started his tour in Vietnam in September 1966, serving with the 4th Infantry Division as an infantryman. Meanwhile his wife relocated to Waterloo and worked for the Waterloo Recreation Commission. In Vietnam, SP4 Pearson conducted operations outside of Saigon in the Binh Duong Province. He was killed on January 5, 1967 from enemy small arms fire in the vicinity of Dau Tieng. His body was returned to Iowa and buried at the Peoria Cemetery in Maxwell. Pearson was 20 years old at the time of his death.