CHARDON, Ohio — Dozens gathered in Chardon Square recently to honor and remember two new names added to the Killed in Action Memorial, which stands outside the Geauga County Courthouse.
The names added:
- Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher R. Thibodeau was 28 when he died on May 26, 2011, after his helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.
- Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus died on January 29, 2004, while serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For his parents, Betty and Kenneth Landrus of Thompson Township, simply saying their son's name matters. They, along with other family members, laid a wreath in Sean's honor.
Kenneth Landrus showed me his dog tag and said, "Where I go, he goes. Can't leave him at home."
Sean was the youngest of six children in the Landrus family.
"We keep him alive at our house, we talk about him all the time, so do the rest of the kids," Betty Landrus said.
Staff Sgt. Landrus had married his high school sweetheart and began basic training in 1993. The father of three was deployed to Iraq in 2003.
"It was a way for him to make a living and take care of his family and stuff like that," his mother Betty Landrus said. "We really didn't think about what it would come to."
Staff Sgt. Landrus was serving as a gunner on top of their military vehicle on January 29, 2004, when a roadside bomb struck.
"He was the gunner, that's the reason he lived that day," Kenneth Landrus said. "Two [were] killed instantly, one died a couple hours later, and he lived for two days — 37 pints of fluid in two days. So, he was tore up."
He was 31 years old.
More than two decades later, Betty and Kenneth Landrus told News 5 how much they've appreciated the gestures made by others to honor their son over the years — tributes to a man his family refuses to let be forgotten.
"We've been to lots of places and done lots of things in his name," she said. "He probably wouldn't think this is so great — that was just the way he was. He didn't want any attention."
This Memorial Day, Betty Landrus has a message to others:
"Be grateful for the time you have them and just enjoy them."
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
