‘Valley of Elah’ father dead at 60
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 21, 2009 10:50:18 EST
His quest for the truth in his son’s murder at hands of his platoon mates revealed a deeper truth about the human cost of war and inspired the movie “In the Valley of Elah.”
Lanny Davis, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran, died Dec. 13 after a two-month battle with lung cancer and a five-year battle over the death of his son, Spc. Richard Davis.
“Those are my two soldiers, they’ll always be,” his widow, Remy Davis, 60, said in a phone interview with Army Times. “They’ll be together.”
Richard Davis, 24, a member of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, disappeared after a night out with friends near Fort Benning, Ga.
His remains were found months later, revealing that he had been stabbed 33 times and his body burned.
Police said Davis’ friends attacked him because he had insulted a stripper and got them bounced from a strip club.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/army_davis_obit_122809p/
Showing posts with label In The Valley of Elah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In The Valley of Elah. Show all posts
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday, September 21, 2007
In 'Elah,' war's casualties are found beyond the battlefields
In 'Elah,' war's casualties are found beyond the battlefields
By Norma Meyer
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
September 21, 2007
Their only son's skeletal remains were housed in a cardboard box and tagged as prosecution evidence for more than three years. Finally this spring, in a cemetery in California's high desert, Vietnam vet Lanny Davis and his retired Army medic wife, Remy, laid to rest the bone fragments etched with stab marks from a knife.
“This ain't my America. My son tried doing the same thing his daddy did. He made me proud,” says a still grief-stricken Davis from his home in St. Charles, Mo. His voice is raspy, a permanent condition caused when a Viet Cong soldier jammed a rifle butt into his throat and damaged his vocal cords.
Army Spc. Richard Davis, 25, had been at the forefront of the bloody invasion of Iraq, but he didn't die in one of those fierce battles. A day after returning to Fort Benning, Ga., from their tour of duty, he and four platoon members celebrated by drinking at a Hooters and a topless bar.
The men he had fought alongside in Iraq would later be convicted on charges stemming from the stabbing of Richard at least 33 times that night and their driving to a convenience store to buy lighter fluid that they poured on his body and torched.
click post title for the rest
By Norma Meyer
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
September 21, 2007
Their only son's skeletal remains were housed in a cardboard box and tagged as prosecution evidence for more than three years. Finally this spring, in a cemetery in California's high desert, Vietnam vet Lanny Davis and his retired Army medic wife, Remy, laid to rest the bone fragments etched with stab marks from a knife.
“This ain't my America. My son tried doing the same thing his daddy did. He made me proud,” says a still grief-stricken Davis from his home in St. Charles, Mo. His voice is raspy, a permanent condition caused when a Viet Cong soldier jammed a rifle butt into his throat and damaged his vocal cords.
Army Spc. Richard Davis, 25, had been at the forefront of the bloody invasion of Iraq, but he didn't die in one of those fierce battles. A day after returning to Fort Benning, Ga., from their tour of duty, he and four platoon members celebrated by drinking at a Hooters and a topless bar.
The men he had fought alongside in Iraq would later be convicted on charges stemming from the stabbing of Richard at least 33 times that night and their driving to a convenience store to buy lighter fluid that they poured on his body and torched.
click post title for the rest
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