Keith Alan Lochner was born in Anderson, Indiana to Jacob and Betty Lochner and from the day he was born everyone knew he would grow up and be a farmer. Keith's dad was a farmer until Keith was twelve when he a back operation forced him to quit. He grew grain, corn, wheat, beans and raised pigs and cattle. Keith went with his dad when he was farming and he loved working with cars. When his mom was driving the tractor around to another field and she would get down to open the gates and five year old Keith would drive the tractor through the gates. Keith's first car was a 4-door Galaxy, which he got when he was sixteen. He graduated from Fairmount High School in 1967 and his plan was to takeover one of the two farms where he had worked and also possibly the cattle farm where he helped feed cattle. Keith's future fiance and his sister met at the summer Fairmount Wesleyan Camp. The families were friends and the first day she ever met him, Cheryl overheard Keith tell his mom that the day she turned sixteen he was going to ask her out. When they began dating, they went to the drive-in and had shakes and burgers and also hung out with family. The day Keith received his draft notice, his mother was reduced to tears and Keith told her not to cry because he was not a coward and he was going willingly. Keith proposed to Cheryl when he was on leave from Fort Lewis, Washington. They picked the ring out together and he gave her a two dollar bill with the date of their engagement written on it, June 23, 1969. Keith was killed in Vietnam just after his 21^st birthday. Cheryl was 19. At the funeral there was an honor guard and a 21-gun salute and while Taps was played a rainbow appeared in the sky. There is a memorial in Marion, Indiana similar to the wall in Washington, with Keith's name inscribed.