Kenneth A. Drew, 52, an Army sniper during the Vietnam War and a letter-carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, died Friday, Feb. 20, in his home in Wauconda of an aortic aneurysm. He grew up in Crystal Lake and attended Crystal Lake High School. In 1969, after the Tet offensive, Mr. Drew enlisted in the Army and eventually reached the rank of sergeant. Family members said he qualified for Green Beret school, but turned down the advanced officer training because he wanted to enter battle as soon as possible, his wife, Tara, said. He was part of the first-line of offense when the United States went into Cambodia. Mr. Drew served in the 5th/7th 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam. “He was up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail,” his wife said. When Mr. Drew returned from Vietnam in 1971, he became a member of the honor guard and marched in burial services and processions at Arlington National Cemetery and the White House until 1972. He married Tara in 1978, and they moved to Wauconda. In 1984, when he was working for the U.S. Postal Service in Barrington, Mr. Drew developed a high fever. Doctors concluded that he had hepatitis C and that his liver was failing. Family members said doctors told them Mr. Drew probably contracted the virus when he was in Vietnam. The disease led to a series of health-related problems that eventually led him to get an experimental liver transplant. The autoimmune drugs he took to suppress the new organ’s rejection caused other health problems that eventually forced him to stop working for the Postal Service. Mr. Drew received two hip replacements and a knee replacement. He had four heart attacks and his kidneys shut down. Just before his death, he had had a cancerous lymph node removed. “Some 59,000 people were killed in Vietnam, but many came back and were dying slowly from what happened there,” his wife said. Mr. Drew enjoyed fishing. When he was homebound, he enjoyed cooking. Mr. Drew is also survived by a son, Kevin. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in Kisselburg-Wauconda Funeral Home, 235 N. Main St., Wauconda. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Monday in Transfiguration Church, 348 W. Mill St., Wauconda.
