Pueblo MIA Vietnam War Veteran Officially Inaugurated Next to Highway 78

PUEBLO COUNTY, Colorado (KRDO) — A Pueblo County family can say goodbye to fate as a new memorial for a missing local Vietnam veteran has been erected in his name.

On Saturday morning, Thomas Michael Hanratty was honored with full military honors at the memorial service, which also featured classmates, friends and family, and even other Marine veterans who served at the same time as him.

“I think Mike’s disappearance affected the whole valley – all his friends and everyone, we all kind of paused, and it stayed that way for 57 years,” his sister Bessie Langdon said after the memorial service on Saturday.

Hanratty attended Pueblo County High School and studied architecture for two years before enlisting in the Marine Corps to serve in the Vietnam War.

“He loved to fight,” Langdon said. “That’s why he joined the Marine Corps. He chose to do it. He should have been drafted, but he chose the Marine Corps because he wanted to be one of the toughest.”

Hanratty went missing in June 1967 when his helicopter crashed with several other soldiers on board. According to Langdon, only two bodies were recovered from the crash and Hanratty is still listed as missing.

Hanratty was originally honored at Fort Logan in Denver. Years later, thanks in part to the Beulah Historical Society, Hanratty is now being honored in his hometown.

“At first I thought it was going to be pretty difficult to drive past here, but now it’s like saying ‘Hi, Mike,'” Langdon explained.