Family visiting Vietnam Wall gets a surprise


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Alex Cabrero reporting"He was killed the 31st of March."

Forty years ago, LaVon Horspool got the visit to her Ogden home no military mother ever wants. Her 18-year-old son, Robert, was killed in Vietnam.

"I'll never forget," said Horspool, touching her son's name on the wall.

This weekend, the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall is at the Newgate Mall in Ogden. Sure enough, on panel 47-E, row 22, there he was, Robert K. Horspool, "Bobby" to his family.

Horspool's sister, Eileen Chavez, had to touch his name too. She said, "This wall is very special. It brings us closer to him. It's like he's here with us."

But as closer as the family felt to him, they also got a surprise. You see, when they arrived at the wall, they asked Dennis Howland to help them find Horspool's name. Howland is a member of Ogden's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1481 and helped bring the memorial wall to Ogden.

Here's the surprise part: Howland told the family a woman asked for the very same name, Robert K. Horspool, just the day before.

"She came up and gave me a hug and said, ‘that's my father. I never got a chance to know him,'"said Howland.

LaVon Horspool
LaVon Horspool

The Horspool's couldn't believe it. "Well, for a minute, I didn't know what to think," said LaVon.

They remembered hearing rumors Horspool fathered a child, but that was 40 years ago. Since they never met a child and never heard from anyone claiming Horspool was their father, they figured it was just a rumor.

Hearing this story about a woman claiming she never met her father, a man with the same name, made Chavez gasp. Bobby was her older brother.

"I just went into shock. I couldn't believe it," said Chavez. "Forty years later. It was just unbelievable."

Ever since that first day, the family has visited the wall, waiting and hoping, their long lost family member comes back.

"It would mean the world to me that we had a piece of Bobby," said Horspool's mother. "I have grandchildren by all of my other children, and I never thought I'd have anybody from Bobby."

But so far, the mystery woman hasn't come back, and no one knows who she is.

Family visiting Vietnam Wall gets a surprise

Since she visited the wall while it was in Ogden, the family thinks she lives somewhere nearby.

"We love you. Please come find us, your family. You have a family here. Please come find us. Please," pleaded Chavez, who wants to meet the niece she never knew.

Forty years and the Horspool's are this close to celebrating Bobby's first Father's Day.

"It would just be fantastic," smiles LaVon.

Howland is trying to help the family find the woman. Anyone with information can call him at (801) 389-1893.

E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com

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