Scope and Contents

The collection consists of textual records documenting Major Thomas Pollard's service in South Korea in 1961 and Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. The materials include correspondence, greeting and thank you cards, photographs, information on the adoption of Vietnamese children by American citizens, clippings, an invitation to the wedding of Thomas Pollard and Dori Kroening, the program from Pollard's funeral, burial information for Pollard, and the program for a celebration of life for Kathy Keesler Ralston. The correspondence includes letters Pollard wrote to his friend and high school sweetheart Kathy Keesler Jacob while he was in Vietnam, letters Pollard wrote to Kathy prior to serving in Vietnam (including those written during his time in Korea), and letters from Major Tom Johnson (who took over Pollard's work in assisting Kathy and her husband Tom Jacob to adopt a child from Vietnam). Pollard's letters include sketches that he drew. The materials date from 1956, from 1961 to 1962, from 1966 to 1968, and from 2015.

Biographical / Historical

Major Thomas Pollard graduated from Red Oak Iowa High School in 1955 and attended the University of Iowa. He married his wife Dori Kroening in 1959. He received a commission in the Army through ROTC and entered as a 2nd Lieutenant. In 1961, he was stationed at the DMZ in South Korea. He did a tour of Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. He started out in Vietnam as a company commander (at the Captain level). During 1968, he was promoted to Major and moved to a planning position at a battalion headquarters. In August 1968, Pollard was killed by a friendly fire artillery shell that fell short of its target and landed in the command post where he was located.

While he married Dori Kroening, Pollard remained friends with his high school sweetheart Kathy Keesler Jacob. While serving in Vietnam, Pollard was working to assist Kathy and her husband Tom Jacob in adopting a Vietnamese girl from an orphanage in Saigon. After Pollard's death, another officer (Tom Johnson) took up the adoption effort.