21 Dec 2002 The photo and following article are taken from The Philadelphia Daily News, special supplement entitled 'SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY,' October 26, 1987. The special supplement was issued in conjunction with the dedication of the Philadelphia Viet Nam Memorial. "A friendly manner, anyone can see, that these words fit Ronnie to a T," Ash's classmates wrote of the six-footer in the 1962 Simon Gratz High School yearbook. Ash was a member of the yearbook staff and the choir, and enjoyed singing and dancing. He was a counselor at a Boy Scout camp for two years before joining the Army in August 1966. The 25-year-old sergeant, a rifleman, machine-gunner and grenadier with Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), was on his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he was found dead of a gunshot wound in an empty house on March 23, 1970. Ash was survived by his mother, two half-brothers and a half-sister. From a native Philadelphian and Marine, Jim McIlhenney christianamacks@comcast.net

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall While the newspaper article above says that Sergeant Ash was assigned to HQ Company, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, official Army records indicate he was assigned to the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at the time of his death.

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