Gary Wayne Bartmess (1946-1970)

BARTMESS, BREER, CREASON

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 7/7/2025 at 15:36:08

From The Nevada Journal, Nevada, Story County, Iowa, October 26, 1970.

14th Story Countian killed in Viet Nam

The second Nevadan and the 14th Story County Soldier to be killed in Viet Nam, Specialist 5 Gary Wayne Bartmess died Thursday near Chu Lasi when he or someone near him stepped on a Viet Cong mine.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Bartmess, 1622 3rd St, Nevada, were notified by a serviceman messenger about 11 a.m. Saturday.

Bartmess and his wife, Billie Joyce, who lives in Nevada with his parents, would have been married 10 months Saturday when the news of his death reached home.

Details of the tragedy are not known. Bartmess was a photographer attached to Company C of the 523 Signal Battalion. He was a veteran of six years in the service and had been in Viet Nam, off and on in combat, for six months. His family says he was planning to make a career of the service and would have reenlisted next February.

Bartmess was on a recon mission at the time, so the sargeant told the family Saturday. There was some doubt about whether it happened on the 22nd or the 23rd, but the messenger told that family that a mine had been triggered by Bartmess or the man next to him.

A graduate of the Nevada High School in 1965, Bartmess enlisted in the Army two months after graduation and had served in the U.S. and in Germany before his hitch started in Viet Nam.

Survivors include a brother, Guy Richard of Colfax, a sister, Mrs. Vernon Breer of Nevada; his grandfather, Guy Creason of Newtown, Mo.; two nieces, and two nephews.

It has been two and a half years since Nevadan Chuck Graham, 20, was killed near Hue and four and a half years since the first Story Countian, Capt. Dennis Ferguson, Ames, was killed in Viet Nam.

Bartmess is the 14th to die in Viet Nam since 1966 and the third this year. Sgt. Steve Rushing, Ames, was killed July 30 and Sgt. Edward Strain of Story City died April 10 when a disabled aircraft skidded into his radio shack at Udorn Air Force Base in Thailand.