Person Page - 333

Terry Gordon Straub

• Last Edited: 4 Sep 2022

• Charts: Descendants of Peter Klinger

• Terry Gordon Straub was born on 18 August 1946.
• He was the son of William D. Straub and Naomi Irene Klinger.
• Terry Gordon Straub died on 22 May 1967, at age 20, in an ambush while serving with the US Army in Vietnam. A Sunbury newspaper reported:
  Lykens RD Soldier Killed In Vietnam
  Army Spec. 4 Terry G. Straub, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Straub, Lykens RD. died of wounds suffered in Vietnam, the Defense Department reported Tuesday.
  An Upper Dauphin High School graduate and a former employe of Cooper's Bakery, Lykens, Straub was sent to Vietnam last September after being stationed at Ft. Lewis. Washington. His tour of duty was to expire m December.
  In addition to his parents, he is survived by a sister, Wendy, at home.
  The Daily Item (Sunbury, Pennsylvania), 31 May 1967, Wed, Page 10.^1,2
• He was buried at Simeon United Lutheran Church Cemetery, Gratz, Dauphin County, PA.^3,4
• Newspaper obituary:
  Terry G. Straub
  Gratz soldier died in ambush while waiting for mail helicopter
  Pfc. Terry Gordon Straub died the way he lived helping his fellow man.
  In the morning hours of May 22, 1987, the Gratz soldier and his comrades in the Army's 4th Infantry were awaiting a military helicopter that delivered mail to Vietnam. As the chopper hovered overhead, the soldiers were ambushed. When a buddy who was manning a mortar shelling unit was hit, Terry Immediately took over his position.
  Terry, 20, died instantly when fragments from enemy mortar rounds struck him in the head. For his valor, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Vietnam Medal of Honor. "He was a good boy. He always helped the underdog," said his mother, Naomi I. Straub.
  Terry was born Aug. 18, 1946. He is survived by his mother and sister, Wendy M Shoop of Hegins. His father, William D. "Bud" Straub, was a World War II veteran who died in 1994.
  Despite the mud-splattered letters sent home, Terry was able to keep a sense of humor. The avid outdoorsman never told his family he was put on dangerous seek-and-destroy missions; instead he wrote about the humid jungle terrain.
  Terry's friendly demeanor shined through to those who met him while he was working as a deliveryman for the former Cooper's Bakery in Lykens.
  "I got a letter from a woman in Dalmatia. She said he was the nicest young man and she couldnt believe he had died," Mrs. Straub said.
  He also assisted his family on their grain farm and helped plant a row of Norway Spruce trees that stand tall today along Straub's property on Garden Spot Road between Gratz and Erdman.
  Shoop was 16 when her brother died. She remembers listening to him play his guitar.
  "He was a great singer and guitar player. And he liked hunting and fishing ... He really was a good brother who would stick up for you," Shoop said.
  She said talking about her brother's death is extremely painful. Because of the family trauma, she never watches war movies and constantly reminds her own children to care about each other's well-being.
  Military officials at first told the family Terry was missing in action and then three days later confirmed his death. He was scheduled to complete his tour of duty just four months after he was killed.
  Art and music were Terry's passions, according to his mother. Two of his charcoal drawings hang in her living room, one of a covered bridge, the other a striking self-portrait that shows Terry seeming to keep vigil over the homestead.
  Terry was a member of the Wolfe Family a band comprising his mother, his aunt, Ada Wolfe, and other family members. The group performs for churches and carnivals. She said the guitar Terry had with him in Vietnam was never returned.
  Terry graduated from Upper Dauphin Area High School, Elizabethville. He was drafted Dec. 6, 1965 and trained at Fort Lewis, Wash., before being sent to Vietnam. He is buried at Gratz Simeons United Lutheran Church, next to his father.
  "I said one day I'll be buried between my two soldiers," Mrs. Straub said.
  Vicki Terwilliger, Republican and Herald (Pottsville, Pennsylvania), 16 Jul 1996, Tue, Page 3.⁵
  

• Father*: William D. Straub b. 1 Feb 1920, d. 17 Sep 1994
• Mother*: Naomi Irene Klinger b. 3 May 1922, d. 20 Jul 2020