Lower Bucks Bridge Dedicated for Soldier Killed in Vietnam War

The County of Bucks on Tuesday dedicated Bucks County Bridge #286 in the Andalusia section of Bensalem in memory of U.S. Army Cpl. John M. Lyons, a Bucks County resident who was killed in action during the Vietnam War.

Lyons, 24, enlisted in the Army in September 1967, married his high school sweetheart three months later and was deployed to Vietnam the following June assigned to the 101^st Airborne Division.

“He wasn’t just an enlisted man in Vietnam, at a time when not many people were enlisting, but that he was part of the 101st ‘Screaming eagles.’ And I am told that anybody who signs up for that is fearless, and is ready to do the job, and is full of courage all the time,” said Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia. “We certainly need lots of people in this country to just be a little but like that every day to hold our democracy together.”

Anna Lyons, widow of Cpl. John M. Lyons, holds a framed photograph of her husband following a ceremony to dedicate a Bucks County-owned bridge in his honor. Credit: Bucks County

While the Father Judge High School Graduate was a native of Philadelphia, he lived with his wife and in-laws in Andalusia later in his life.

Lyons was killed Sept. 16, 1968, during combat operations and was promoted posthumously to corporal. At the time of his death, Lyons was two months away from the scheduled end of his combat tour. He had plans to meet his wife and, for the first time, his three-month old son in Hawaii.

The bridge dedicated in Lyons’ honor crosses Poquessing Creek along Red Lion Road connecting Philadelphia and Bensalem Township. It is the twenty second County-owned bridge since 2022 to be named for a local soldier lost in the Vietnam War.

The dedications are part of the County’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge Program, which honors the 136 Bucks County residents lost in the Vietnam War. The County administers the program in partnership with Bucks County-based veterans’ advocate Ed Preston, who chairs the Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (PAVVMF).

To learn more about the program and the men it is meant to honor, visit BucksCounty.gov/MemorialBridges.

To see more photos from Tuesday’s ceremony, visit the County’s Flickr page.