Woman searching for father’s Vietnam-era ammunition box

By Jennifer Horbelt and Mason Watkins

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    MARSHALL COUNTY, Kentucky (WPSD) — When our parents pass away, many of us treasure even the small things that were theirs. That’s no different for a local woman. She’s searching for something that belonged to her father, a Marine veteran, that mistakenly went to auction.

“Robert Allen Richendollar. Everybody called him Bobby,” Lynn Richendollar said of her dad.

Bobby was a proud marine. Lynn remembers well.

“He was so proud of that uniform,” she said of a picture of her father.

Bobby served in Vietnam.

“He was, from what I understand, 1st Force Recon,” she said. “He had all kinds of medals for sharpshooting.”

We asked her if he ever talked about that time in his life.

“He did, and it wasn’t a pleasant time. He said it was hot. It’s a jungle over there,” Lynn said. “But, he said when they got back from Vietnam they weren’t treated very well, because it was not a popular war. But he wanted to do his part, he enlisted when he was 18 and he was 20 in this picture.”

Lynn was proud, too, to share what she remembers of her dad with us.

She and her dad were close.

“Yeah, I was a daddy’s girl,” she said. “He had the best smile. He had the best laugh.”

Bobby died of esophageal cancer in 2003. She cherishes each picture she has of him and what’s in one of those pictures. A Vietnam-era ammunition box, spray painted white, with the name R.A. Richendollar written on top.

“It was one of the first things he got when he went to Vietnam, and he said he carried everything in that. They didn’t really use it so much as an ammo box, as a personal box, because you could lock it. So, that was why all of his valuables and everything else was in there,” Lynn explained. “That went with him all through Vietnam; came back with him to the states.”

In early July, the box mistakenly went to auction in Benton, Kentucky.

“We had tools in it, and we needed the tools for something, so that was why it was where it was,” Lynn said, explaining how it ended up in an auction. “And it wasn’t supposed to go to auction, and I didn’t realize that the auction had happened until it was too late, and it was gone.”

Now, Lynn is desperately searching for something that’s not worth much, but symbolizes his service and sacrifice.

“The box itself means a lot, because I don’t have much left of my dad,” Lynn said. “And if I get it back I promise, it’ll go in a, the closet with the tool box and it’s not leaving again!”

Lynn is also a veteran. She’s posted that picture and information about the box to Facebook, but so far hasn’t had any luck.

If you know anything about that box, email me at jhorbelt@wpsdlocal6.com.

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