Ollie Sauls Jr. long lost casualty of war

Round Rock’s long lost casualty of war
Discovery shows Round Rock lost two in the war
Austin Community Newspapers
By Cristina Peña
May 16, 2014

Sauls was killed in action May 27, 1968 just fewer than three months into his first tour of duty and shortly after turning 21. According to May 31, 1968 news release from the Department of Defense, he was attached to the Army’s 4th Calvary Regiment when he suffered multiple fragmentation wounds in hostile action in Gia Dinh Province, which surrounds Saigon. He earned multiple awards and decorations during his short time as a private first class in the Army including the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Purple Heart.

For more than four decades, Round Rock residents have been under the belief that there was only one local person killed in action during the Vietnam War. But now, thanks to family members and local veteran groups, another Round Rock resident is being recognized for his military contributions.

Ollie Sauls Jr., born in April 1947, grew up on a large cotton farm just off County Road 110 – just east of the current Round Rock city limits – and lived locally until 1955 when he left to live in Arizona, California and eventually Detroit. Though his 12-person family moved often, Sauls’ grandparents and some extended family continued to reside in Round Rock.

Sauls’ uncle, Clarence L. Sauls, and cousins, Ella Morrison, Mildred Sauls and Rita Effinger are his only living relatives currently residing in Round Rock. But other family members, like his grandparents, are buried with him on a family plot in the Hopewell Cemetery off Sam Bass Road, adjacent to the historic Round Rock City Cemetery.

Local veteran Jim Torres found Sauls’ gravesite while combing the cemetery for veterans’ names to include on a new veterans memorial monument, slated to be built by 2015.
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