Honoring those who died

The mortar rocket exploded and discharged shards of scalding, hot metal about the camp. The blast, from the hands of the enemy, injured six men, among them Havre native Jim Matter.

It was 1969 and Matter was 20 years old. He was in Vietnam fighting for the U.S. Army. Shrapnel from the mortar shell wounded him from head to toe.

"I wasn't even there for a month yet," he said today.

But Matter was one of the lucky ones. He made it back.

Monday, Memorial Day, Matter and other members of Havre VFW Post 497 will honor the people killed in combat, the people who didn't return to American soil. They'l...