VETERAN OF THE DAY
Thursday, August 27, 2026 | Kansas
SP4 DEXTER DUANE HARBOUR
United States Army
F Troop, 17th Cavalry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade
Born: August 27, 1950
Home of Record: Ulysses, Kansas
County: Grant County
Branch: United States Army
Rank: Specialist Four
Date of Casualty: February 20, 1970
Province: Quang Tin, South Vietnam
The Wall: Panel 13W, Line 35
A SON OF THE KANSAS PLAINS
Dexter Duane Harbour was born on August 27, 1950, and grew up in Ulysses, Kansas, a small community on the high plains of Grant County.
There is something especially poignant about honoring Dexter today.
August 27 is his birthday.
Had Vietnam never entered his life, Dexter would have turned 76 years old today.
Instead, the young Kansan whose name appears on Panel 13W of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial never reached his twentieth birthday.
He was only 19 years old when he died.
FROM ULYSSES TO VIETNAM
Dexter entered the United States Army during one of the most difficult periods of the Vietnam War.
Military records associated with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade identify him as a member of F Troop, 17th Cavalry, a cavalry element serving with the brigade. The unit roster records Dexter among the soldiers who served with the troop and identifies him as killed in action on February 20, 1970.
The 196th Brigade’s own honor roll also lists SP4 Dexter Duane Harbour among the Americans lost on that date.
Cavalry troops in Vietnam bore little resemblance to the mounted cavalry of earlier American wars. Their battlefield was one of armored vehicles, helicopters, jungle trails, villages, rice paddies and sudden engagements where danger could erupt almost without warning.
Dexter became part of that war.
FEBRUARY 20, 1970
On February 20, 1970, Specialist Four Harbour was serving in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam.
That day became the last day of his life.
The 196th Brigade honor roll shows that Dexter was not the only soldier lost that day. Among those listed alongside him are several other members of the brigade, a sobering reminder that February 20 was a costly day for the men serving there.
Dexter’s service in the Army had begun only a short time before. A military service directory records his period of Army service as 1969 to 1970.
A young man from western Kansas had gone from the familiar plains surrounding Ulysses to a battlefield thousands of miles from home.
He never returned alive.
NINETEEN YEARS
Sometimes the numbers tell their own story.
Dexter was born:
August 27, 1950.
He died:
February 20, 1970.
He had lived only 19 years, six months and 24 days.
Think about that for a moment.
He had not yet experienced his twentieth birthday.
There were decades of life he never had the chance to live.
Careers never begun.
Birthdays never celebrated.
Family gatherings never attended.
Friends who grew older while Dexter remained forever nineteen.
Vietnam took many Americans at precisely that threshold between youth and adulthood.
Dexter Harbour was one of them.
HIS HOMETOWN DID NOT FORGET HIM
The connection between Dexter and Ulysses did not end when the telegram arrived from Vietnam.
An American Legion organization in Ulysses carries the name:
DEXTER D. HARBOUR POST #79
Its recorded address is on South Main Street in Ulysses.
More than half a century after Dexter’s death, his name therefore remains woven into the veterans community of the hometown he left behind.
That is remembrance in its most enduring form.
Not simply a name spoken once.
A name carried forward.
HIS NAME ON THE WALL
In Washington, D.C., Dexter is remembered among the Americans whose names are carved into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
DEXTER D HARBOUR
PANEL 13W • LINE 35
There are no ranks on The Wall.
No medals.
No hometowns.
No descriptions of how long a person lived or what dreams might have waited for him back home.
Just names.
And sometimes a name is enough to make us stop.
Dexter’s should.
A BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE
Today is different from most Veteran of the Day tributes.
We are not merely remembering the anniversary of a battle or the day Dexter died.
We are remembering the day he was born.
On August 27, 1950, somewhere in Kansas, a family welcomed a baby boy named Dexter Duane Harbour.
Nineteen years later, that young man was serving his country in Vietnam.
Today, seventy-six years after his birth, we have an opportunity to give Dexter something history denied him:
Another birthday.
Not with candles.
Not with cake.
But with remembrance.
We speak his name.
We tell his story.
We remind another generation that behind every line etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was once a living, breathing young American with a hometown and a future.
TODAY WE REMEMBER
On this Thursday, August 27, 2026, the Micky Spano Show and VetVault proudly honor a son of the great state of Kansas:
Specialist Four Dexter Duane Harbour
United States Army
Ulysses, Kansas
He left the Kansas plains for Vietnam.
He served with his fellow soldiers.
He died at nineteen.
And his hometown remembered him.
So do we.
Happy birthday, Dexter.
You should have had seventy-six of them.
America remembers the nineteen you were given.
DEXTER DUANE HARBOUR
August 27, 1950 – February 20, 1970
Forever 19. Forever a son of Kansas. Forever remembered.
Honor the Fallen. Support the Living. Teach the Next Generation.