<GRANDVIEW, Iowa (AP) -- A Vietnam veteran from southeast Iowa will have his name included at a war memorial with help from Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Thanks to a 50-dollar check from the Massachusetts senator, Raymond Cromer's name is being engraved and placed in a brick circle under a Huey helicopter at the All-Veterans Memorial in Grandview.
Kerry stopped at the memorial in early August during a bus tour. When 57-year-old Cromer was introduced to Kerry as a fellow Vietnam veteran, Kerry asked to see Cromer's brick. But Cromer told Kerry he couldn't afford to buy one.
Cromer says Kerry assured hiim right then that he'd have a brick, and had his staff take down Cromer's name and address.
Cromer was a sergeant in the 823rd Civil Engineering Squadron, U.S. Air Force, and served in Vietnam from October 1969, until October 1970. >
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