Sunday, September 6, 2009

Soldier coming home from Vietnam

After chopper went down in ’65 and Rice declared missing then killed, family finally can rest

Sunday, September 6, 2009
By Kim Kimzey
kim.kimzey@shj.com

The last time Martha Mathis saw her brother, Thomas Rice Jr., they took a photo together
Rice told Mathis to always keep the picture and remember him. He said he loved her. They embraced.
“He said, ‘I’ll be back some day,’ ” Mathis said.
She told him she would be waiting. She has waited almost 44 years.
Mathis and the rest of Rice’s family never lost hope the beloved young man, devoted to them and to his country, would return from Vietnam after the Huey helicopter he was aboard went missing on Dec. 28, 1965.

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