Norman Lee Roggow

Norman Lee Roggow was raised on a farm outside Aurelia. He was in the last graduating class from Brooke Consolidated School in 1959. He was a tall and lanky and enjoyed playing basketball during his youth. Roggow later obtained a business degree from Wayne State College before joining the Navy in 1963. In the Navy he became a pilot and deployed to Vietnam aboard the USS <i>Oriskany</i> with the 7th Fleet. On October 8, 1967 LT Roggow was killed in a plane crash while returning to his aircraft carrier from Chu Lai Air Base. The crash site was later discovered on a steep mountainside and indicated there were no survivors. The remains of the five who perished in the crash went unrecovered due to rugged terrain and enemy forces in the area. The crash site was excavated some 40 years later in 2007; LT Roggow’s remains were repatriated to the U.S., cremated, and laid to rest at the Memorial Cemetery in Le Mars.