AUBURN — Don Beaulieu, sergeant-at-arms officer for the American Legion, William J. Rogers Post 153, took on a project to have the brass plate cleaned on the Vietnam Memorial’s on the Lewiston and Auburn side of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge before Memorial Day. Now his concern is focused on the missing comrades killed in the Vietnam War from the Lewiston and Auburn area.

Paul R. Bernard, public relations officer, recently learned about the missing names. Bernard had met with Richard Caron, a Korean War Navy veteran, who wanted to remember and honor the brother of his wife, Juanita “June” Dumond Caron, by having Roger J. Dumond’s name placed on the 23rd Veterans Memorial Stone in the Veterans Memorial Park for Memorial Day.

Dumond was born and raised in Lewiston and graduated from Lewiston High School. Dumond had tried to enlist in the military but was designated 4f due to one leg being shorter than the other. Dumond then moved to Chicopee, Mass., looking for work where he married his wife Judy and started a little restaurant business. At the outbreak of the Vietnam War he was drafted. On March 28, 1969, he was killed in the southeastern province of Binh Du’o’ng.

Dumond’s name is missing from the memorials on both sides of the bridge. His name is also incorrectly spelled on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. Bernard is working with Congressman Mike Michaud on what needs to be done to have the correction made.

Bernard has also received a call from another Vietnam veteran, Don Bosse of Hartford, who said that his brother was born in Auburn, was killed in Vietnam and was also missing on the stones. Don Bosse also was sent to Vietnam and was assigned to the same unit as his brother. When I arrived Bosse sated the other soldiers said; we had a Bosse here. That was my brother said Don. No way said the men, then he showed them a picture and they wept.

Gerard Laurier Bosse was born in Auburn on May 18, 1947, and died on May 23, 1968, in the Quang Nam Province on the South Central Coast of Vietnam as a result of a gunshot wound to the head and body from hostile rifle fire while on patrol. Bosse had moved to Providence, R.I., and entered the military on June 29, 1967.

Both cities now have one of their own missing from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Stones. Bernard is working with Dale Doughty of the Maine DOT bureau of maintenance and operations to solve this problem.

Anyone interested in remembering and honoring an honorably discharged veteran should have their names placed on the last two Veterans Memorial Stones in the Veterans Memorial Park. Stone 24 will be unveiled on Veterans Day in November and then stone 25 will be unveiled on Memorial Day 2013. There are 216 names per stone and they are filling up fast, said Bernard. For an application call Moe Dutil at 784-1206.

For additional information or if anyone knows of another Lewiston Auburn Vietnam Veteran who was killed and is omitted from the Vietnam Stone, contact Paul Bernard at 225-3990. Peace time veterans can also have their names added if they were honorably discharged.