Sisters To Visit Vietnam to Search for U.S. Army Base Named After Fallen Hero Father

SAN FRANCISCO - June 2, 2015 - PRLog -- MEDIA ADVISORY

Sisters Journey Comes in the Wake of Honoring Their Father at Arlington National Cemetery and the Announcement of Vietnam as the International Destination of the California State University East Bay Global Innovators MBA Program.

Who:     Phyllis Wright Cameron, 51, of Antioch, CA and Jackie Wright, 61, of San Francisco, representing their brothers Joe N. Wright, 59, of Columbus, Georgia and Stanley Wright,57, of Orangeburg, South Carolina will travel to Vietnam to find the land that was an U.S. Army base named Shannon Wright Compound in Vinh Long. The trip comes a year after the four Wright siblings exhumed their father Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida and their mother, Ouida Fay McClendon Wright from a cemetery in Columbus, Georgia and joined their remains for reburial at Arlington National Cemetery, March 10, 2014 (50 and 44 years respectively after their deaths March 9, 1964 and March 9, 1970). The oldest, Jackie at age 20 began raising two of her three siblings, Phyllis age 10 and Stanley, age 15 due to their parents’ deaths.

What:          Journey to Vinh Long, Vietnam to see where the “Shannon Wright Compound” was during the early years of the Vietnam War when soldiers were called “advisers.” The sisters will also go to the Mekong River near Sadec, Vietnam where helicopter UH 1B 62-01961 crashed killing Wright and 20 year-old PFC John Francis Shea of Willimantic, Connecticut on March 9, 1964. The accident received national media attention, as both Wright and Shea were honor guards for then Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who was in the country viewing the troops. At the time of his death, Wright had already received commendation for successfully completing 350 missions and was two weeks from returning home to his wife and four children including Phyllis who was born while he was at war. Posthumously, Wright received the Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters.

Where:    San Francisco; Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh Long, and Sadec, Vietnam.

When:     June 14 - Wright and Cameron fly on Eva Airways Flight 17 at 1:40 a.m. from San Francisco Airport Terminal 1.

June 15 – Arrive at Ho Chi Minh City Eva Airways Flight 391  Terminal 2 at 11:40 a.m.

June 16/17 - Visit Vinh Long to find where the U.S. Army Base & Anh Xudn

Photography Studio were located  & Mekong River near Sadec.

June 18 - Phyllis Wright Cameron joins California State East Bay Global Innovators MBA Classmates who arrive.

June 19 - Jackie Wright returns to San Francisco 4:10 p.m. Eva Airways Flight 18.

June 27 - Phyllis Wright Cameron returns to SFO on the day of her 28^th wedding anniversary after completing class assignments in the cities of Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, and Hanoi.

Why:       The decision to discover their family history in Vietnam, firsthand, came as a result of the announcement by California State University Eastbay MBA Global Innovators that the program would have Vietnam as its destination this year for its study abroad segment. The announcement came months after the Wrights honored their parents at Arlington National Cemetery. Phyllis will graduate from the program in 2016.

If it had not been for the invention of the Internet much of the Wright Family History in Vietnam would have been lost. Jackie Wright’s discovery of an internet positing about their father’s name on a microchip sent off to space by NASA began the gradual revelations that led to finding the 114th Aviation Website,  a 2010 family reunion in San Francisco and ultimately the reburial of Sp5 and Mrs. Wyley Wright Jr. at Arlington National Cemetery. Sp5 Wright’s legacy is part of American and Vietnamese history. The Wright siblings’ additional perspective about their father, who died when they were children, is a reminder that the impact of war affects generations and fallen heroes should be acknowledged beyond Memorial Day.

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Note to Reporters & Editors:

Phyllis Cameron, 510-326-1982 and Jackie Wright, 415-525-0410 are available for interviews

Visuals:
Video of Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery

Photos: Sp5 Wright’s photos of Vietnamese; Sp5 Wyley Wright & Ouida Wright hand-painted by a Vietnamese Artist of Anh Xudn Studio in Vinh Long; Ceremony at Church & Arlington

Departure & Arrival from Airports of Sisters

Visit to Vinh Long - Short tribute ceremony at MeKong River near Sadec Vietnam honoring Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., PFC John Francis Shea, Lt. Kenneth A. Shannon, other fallen members of the 114^th Aviation Company,LTC. George J. Young former commander of the 114^th Aviation Company (who died in San Antonio, Texas in 2003 and who wrote about the incident in the Gold Book (http://560mp.tripod.com/560MP/Shea.htm) involving Wright and Shea) and all who died in the Vietnam War, the 58,000 Americans and the millions of Vietnamese.

Background Information:

San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
http://sfbayview.com/2015/04/love-story-at-arlington-national-cemetery/

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce E-News
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/web/articleid/81276/columnid//default.asp

WTVM News
http://www.wtvm.com/story/24886481/vietnam-veteran-to-be-buried-at-arlington-natl-cemetery?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9912392

Florida Times Union
http://members.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-03-03/story/jacksonville-soldier-among-first-killed-vietnam-be-reunited-wife

What God Has Joined Together
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=80026&columnid=

Contacts for Media: Jackie Wright, 415-525-0410 or Phyllis Cameron, 510-326-1982