Person:Merrill Geraghty (2)

                                                                           OBITUARY
                                   From The Mesa, Arizona Tribune on September 12, 1968
    Army 1st Lt. Merrill T. Geraghty, 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike D. Geraghty, 324 N. 58th St., was killed in action in Vietnam on Sept. 6, the Defense Department reported yesterday.
    Lt. Geraghty was born in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Dec. 12, 1944 and graduated from Mesa High School in 1961. A 1966 graduate of Arizona State University, he left for military service two days before commencement exercises that year.
    Lt. Geraghty was the son of the Stanfield schools superintendent, former superintendent of Apache Junctions schools. Survivors in addition to his parents, include four brothers; Air Force  Sgt. James Geraghty, Marine Reserves Cpl. Michael Gearghty, Denny and Danny, twins at home, and a sister, Mrs. Sandra Sosa of Scottsdale; and his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. James Geraghty of Manhattan, Kan.
    Rosary will be recited at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Chapel of the Roses, Larry J. Melcher Mortuary.
    Requiem mass will be read by Rev. John F. Cullinan at 10 a.m. Monday at Christ the King Catholic Church. Burial with full military honors will be in Mountain View Memorial Garden.

The following is taken probably from the Mesa Tribune in September 1968:

                      WAR KILLS TWO MORE VALLEY MEN

    The war in Vietnam today had claimed the lives of two more Valley servicemen.
    Army First Lt. Merrill (Tom) Geraghty, 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Geraghty opf Mesa, was killed in action while serving with the 101st Airborne Division.
    A native of Siox Falls, S.D., Lt. Geraghty graduated from Mesa High School in 1961 and earned a bachelor of science degree at Arizona State University in 1966.
    The Lieutenant, who left for military duty two days before the ASU commencement exercises in 1966, was assigned to Co. A in the division's third battalion. He was to have returned to the U.S. on Nov. 17.
    He is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Sandra Sosa of Scottsdale, and four brothers, Air Force Sgt. Jim Geraghty, who recently returned after three years duty in Okinawa; Cpl. Mike Geraghty of the Marine Corps Reserves; and Denny and Danny Geraghty, twins, seniors at Mesa Westwood High School.
    Lt. Geraghty's father is superintendent of schools at Stanfield.

The Kinsley, Kansas Mercury also printed an obituary for Tom on Sptember 28, 1968; with Miss Lavina Trotter, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Bradford and Mrs. Earl Stinson flew to Arizona to to attend the services for their nephew.; added at the end. The Mercury has Tom's actual birth date Secember 12, 1943 too.

    Tom was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star after being killed in action in the Vietnam War. As a youth he was an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts.
    Tom's tombstone has his birth date as 1944. According to Tom's sister Sandra, their mother told Tom's siblings to be quiet about so not to upset their father.