Corporal Robert B. Luther, a native of Grand Island, was drafted into the Army on June 21, 1969, served six months in Vietnam, and died on Mother’s Day, May 10, 1970. His unit, the First Battalion, 5th Mechanized Division, broke out from a 43-day siege at Base Fuller, a mountaintop camp called “Hell.” Enemy fire pursued them 5 miles down the mountain and hit a helicopter, which crashed, killing all six Americans on board and one on the ground. Luther was struck by the falling aircraft near Khe Go Bridge. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnamese Service and Campaign Medals, and the Combat Infantry Badge. He was laid to rest at Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Island, New York, on May 23, 1970.