Donald Ralph Ledlie

Donald Ralph Ledlie grew up in Des Moines and graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in the class of 1966. He went on to Iowa State University for one year before transferring to the Emmetsburg Community College for a semester. Ledlie was in the first graduating class of the Farm Mechanics Vocational program at the Iowa Lakes Community College in 1969. After graduation he was drafted into the Army that August, and he arrived in Vietnam in February 1970. CPL Ledlie served as an infantryman with the 199th Infantry Brigade stationed just east of Saigon. On April 30, 1970 CPL Ledlie was killed by enemy fire during a combat operation near Tanh Linh Air Field in the Binh Thuy Province. His body was unable to be recovered due to enemy fire and he was initially listed as missing in action. It took multiple recovery attempts before the Army could return CPL Ledlie’s body home. The 22-year-old’s body was buried in the family plot at the Scotch Ridge Cemetery in Warren County.