Vietnam Veteran's widow tried to have death from Agent Orange honored on Memorial

War widow gets measure of comfort at Memory Day service
By Craig Smith, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 18, 2009

Anna Coughenour plans to reunite two war buddies Monday.

When her husband, Dale Coughenour, died in 2007, she began a campaign to get his name placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. But he didn't meet the criteria of dying in combat.

Dale Coughenour died on his wife's birthday, Dec. 12, 2007.

"I knew after he passed away, it was up to me to try to get his name on that Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The only thing that's helping me get through this is that I've gotten his name as close to that wall as I could," she said.

Anna Coughenour, 62, of Uniontown will travel to Washington for a ceremony in which her husband will be honored. As part of the "In Memory Day" program Monday at the memorial, Dale Coughenour's name will be read aloud and a certificate bearing his name will be placed near the Wall during the ceremony. His name will be inscribed in a commemorative book at the memorial.

A lance corporal in the Marine Corps, Dale Coughenour was exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange during his 13 months in South Vietnam in 1966-67.

He was discharged in 1972, and his lungs weakened. He could not breathe without the aid of an oxygen tank, said Anna Coughenour, his wife of 24 years.

"He had lived with that oxygen tank since the 1970s," she said.

Anna Coughenour wants to place her husband's certificate near the name of a fallen comrade, Charles Burns of Ripley, Tenn., who died in Quang Tri on June 1, 1967.

The two men, who went through boot camp together, remained friends. When a traveling version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came to Uniontown, Dale Coughenour could barely bring himself to look at it.
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War widow gets measure of comfort at Memory Day service