McCook Service Honors Airman Killed Over Laos by Paul Hammel, World Herald Bureau Lincoln - July 2000 |
Thirty years after Michael Klingner was killed in a mission over Laos, his friends and classmates gathered for a memorial service for the McCook, Neb., man. Klingner, then 24 was initially listed as missing in action after being shot down in his F-100 on April 6, 1970. A year later, he was declared dead, although his body was never found. No memorial service was ever held in McCook. More than 100 people, including former Gov. Frank Morrison and McCook Mayor Flora Lundberg, attended the memorial event Monday. Friends from as far away as California attended. Steve Batty, a close friend of Klingner's and a McCook City Council member, said the service was the way to honor a valued friend. It was held in conjunction with an all-class high school reunion in McCook. Klingner graduated from McCook in 1963 and the University of Nebraska in 1976 as a 2nd Lieutenant then went on to USAF pilot training at Williams AFB in Arizona. He was a drummer and a member of a regional rock'n' roll band, J Harrison B and the Bumbles, that will be enshrined in August in the Nebraska Rock Music Hall of Fame. A member of the band, Stan Johnson, now of Davis, Calif., played taps at the memorial service. Later, Klingner's widow, Jane Klingner Adams of Greeley, Colo., presented a slide show of Klingner's life. Batty said that the event grew after a Lincoln woman, Ann White, attempted to reunite an MIA bracelet she had worn for over 20 years with members of Klingner's family. The bracelet, with Klingner's name on it, became part of a display shown in the Michael Klingner Memorial Room at the McCook City Library. |
|
|