Outside, it was a sunny fall day. Inside the farmhouse’s living room, a large cluster of television cameras and newspaper reporters captured the disappointment on the faces of the Lyle Mackedanz family as an Army sergeant told them photos they thought pictured their long-missing son was really another man. It was Sept. 26, 1985.

Staff Sgt. Mackedanz has been listed as missing in action since a Huey helicopter he was riding in disappeared on April 21, 1968, 17 miles southwest of Hue in rugged northern South Vietnam. A pilot and “chopper” mechanic, Mackedanz had volunteered to help retrieve another downed machine. It was Sunday, his day off.

Now, 23 years after that farm visit, and 40 years after Mackedanz disappeared, Hutchinson native Ron Mackedanz thinks it is time to memorize his older second-cousin. He is planning a brief ceremony Sunday afternoon, April 21, at the Veterans Memorial Park in Hutchinson.

The 3 p.m. event kicks off with the Patriot Guard, a squad of motorcycle-riding veterans from Ridgewater College along Main Street (State Highway 15) to the park on First Avenue Northeast. The group visited Hutchinson last summer to welcome the local National Guard unit back from Iraq. Ron Mackedanz is an assistant ride captain for the chapter in Willmar, where he now lives.

For more about Lyle Mackedanz and the program planned in his honor, read the April 17 print edition of the Leader.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com [2].)