People gathered at St. Michael Cemetery Wednesday to remember one of the first soldiers from Sioux Falls to die in the Vietnam War.

O’Gorman graduate Kirby Dougherty went off to basic training in March of 1968.  Just six months later, he was dead; killed in the line of duty shortly after arriving in Vietnam.  Dougherty was buried at St. Michael that September.  But it took more than 50-years to receive the military honors he was due.

Honoring the sacrifice of a Sioux Falls soldier more than a half century after his death.

“I’m very thankful and honored that they’re doing this for my brother,” Nancy Preston said.

Nancy Preston was 10-years-old when her brother, Kirby Dougherty, was killed in Vietnam.

“I miss what could have been.  Having a big brother, and having my kids have an uncle,” Preston said.

Dougherty’s family refused military honors during his burial at St. Michael Cemetery back in 1968.

“My mother wasn’t a real big fan of guns.  It’s not like she opposed the war or anything, but she just wasn’t a person that liked guns so she opted not to have that,” Preston said.

Technology which didn’t even exist 50 years ago helped make this service happen.  Social media posts commemorating Dougherty’s death last fall created an outpouring within the community.

“The people that responded, it was unbelievable.  This post just blew up,” Preston said.

Playing taps struck a personal note for Gary Marquardt, who played football with Dougherty at O’Gorman.

“When you’re a 19-year-old, you don’t expect friends to show up dead.  And then I heard the details, it was his first mission into the field when he got killed and ended up spending a night alone in the jungle, it was an awful thing to think about,” Marquardt said

Daugherty died during a time when the Vietnam War divided the country.  But fifty years later, the emotional wounds are mending at the graveside of soldiers like Dougherty, who paid the ultimate price.

“Those guys were doing their duty, serving their country, like Kirby, many of them gave their lives,” Marquardt said.

Marquardt, who wasn’t able to serve in Vietnam because of an ulcer, is a member of the non-profit Bugles Across America, which provides free, live performances of “Taps” at military funerals.