More detail on this person: Mr Larry E Joyce, 60 of Granbury Decorated Vietnam vet Larry Joyce dies at 60 Dallas Morning News, The (TX) - Sunday, May 2, 1999 Larry E. Joyce, the decorated Vietnam veteran who protested his son's combat death while on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, has died. Mr. Joyce, 60, died Friday of leukemia at his home in Granbury. He will be buried at 9 a.m. Friday in Arlington National Cemetery next to his son, Sgt. James Casey Joyce. Services in Texas for Mr. Joyce will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Acton United Methodist Church in Acton, south of Fort Worth. Mr. Joyce was most recently the American Heart Association's vice president for corporate relations in Dallas. He retired last year because of failing health. Mr. Joyce became an active opponent of the use of combat troops in peacekeeping situations. He wrote a number of articles - including one for The Dallas Morning News - and met with President Clinton on the subject. His son, an Army Ranger, was one of 18 U.S. soldiers killed during an October 1993 nighttime attempt to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid; it was Sgt. Joyce's first combat mission. Mr. Joyce was following developments in Yugoslavia very closely up until his death, said his wife, Gail Galbraith Joyce of Granbury. "He just felt so strongly that if you were going to undertake a mission like that, you had to be able to support the troops with everything you had and to stay the course," she said. Her husband was a natural leader who had a wonderful sense of humor, Mrs. Joyce said. "He was wonderful," she said. "I've always said he had the most integrity of any person I have ever known." Mr. Joyce was born in Dallas and graduated from Merkel High School in Merkel, Texas. In 1960, he earned a bachelor's degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, where he was president of the band. A distinguished military graduate of the ROTC program, Mr. Joyce was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army. His battle group was sent to West Berlin during the Cold War tensions that led to the erection of the Berlin Wall. In 1963, he volunteered to be a combat adviser in Vietnam. In 1967, Mr. Joyce served a second tour in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. His military honors include a Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster, the Meritorious Service medal with four oak leaf clusters, an Air Medal for Valor with 12 oak leaf clusters and the Republic of Vietnam's Cross of Gallantry. In 1970, Mr. Joyce was selected for the U.S. Army General Staff College. While still in the Army, he attended graduate school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he earned a master's degree in mass communication. Mr. Joyce was promoted to lieutenant colonel and the post of general manager of the European--Middle East edition of Stars and Stripes , the military newspaper. He completed his military career at the Pentagon, where he was chief spokesman for the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff. In 1980, Mr. Joyce joined then Dallas-based EDS Corp., working in the insurance division. Two years later he became vice president of the American Heart Association's office of communication in Dallas. In 1990, Mr. Joyce moved to Chicago to be senior vice president of communications and publishing for the American Medical Association. In 1995, he returned to Dallas and the American Heart Association. In addition to his wife, Mr. Joyce is survived by his son, Steven Joyce of Granbury; a daughter, Sancy Joyce of Austin; his parents, Ernest and Vicki Joyce of Sweetwater, Texas; and a grandmother, Clara Hendrix of Sweetwater. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or the donor's charity of choice.
Burial information: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
This information was last updated 01/14/2019
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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