Pryor Wheat, first OBU Vietnam casulty

The first graduate of Ouachita killed in Vietnam was a Red Shirt. Pryor L. Wheat of Helena, a 1963 initiate, was killed in action September 6, 1967 while serving with the First Air Calvary. Lt. Wheat was loading injured men into a helicopter when it exploded. Ouachita's flag flew at half-mast during most of September to honor Wheat. November 11, 1967 was designated "Lt. Pryor Wheat Day" by Ouachita's military science department. Several medals were awarded to his widow, former Red Shirt Sweetheart Hope Surman Wheat, in a posthumous ceremony in Spring 1968. Wheat, a four-year letterman in football and a member of Pershing Rifles national military honor society, was Rho Sigma vice president his senior year. He was a cadet major and company commander in Ouachita's ROTC battalion. He graduated in 1966 with a business administration degree.