May-June 2017, Issue 73 See all issues to date at 503rd Heritage Battalion website: Contact: [email protected] (formerly [email protected]) http://corregidor.org/VN2-503/newsletter/issue_index.htm ~ 2/503d Photo of the Month ~ 2/503d Sky Soldiers waiting to join the Battle of the Slopes, June 1967 (Photo by Earle “Doc” Jackson, B Med) 2/503d VIETNAM Newsletter / May-June 2017 – Issue 73 Page 1 of 97 We Dedicate this Issue of Our Newsletter in Memory and Honor of the Men of the 173d Airborne Brigade & Attached Units We Lost 50 Years Ago in the Months of May & June 1967 “They, and we, are the legacies of an unbroken chain of proud men and women who served their country with honor, who waged war so that we might know peace, who braved hardship so that we might know opportunity, who paid the ultimate price so that we might know freedom.” President Barrack Obama, Memorial Day, 2009 Winfred Alderman, 20 Harold A. Beaverson, Jr., 33 PFC, C/4/503, 5/17/67 SSG, HHC/4/503, 5/31/67 “Thank you PFC Alderman for your “Harold was born October 21, 1933. courage in dangerous times, in a His parents were Harold and Sara and dangerous place.” he had three brothers and two sisters. A Grateful Vietnam Vet His wife was Patsye Horn and he had three children. He attended York High and served with the Marines in the Terry Lee Odis Allen, 19 Korean War. He joined the Army in March, 1957 and PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 had served one tour in Vietnam and was just days from “Terry is buried at White Chapel finishing his second tour when he was killed. He had Memorial Gardens, Kansas City, KS.” already signed up for his third tour. He was stationed with HHC, 4th BN, 503rd INF, 173rd ABN BDE at Bien Hoa. He was killed on May 31, 1967 and was 33 years old. He was awarded the Good Conduct, Korean Service, Erling Alton Anderson, 22 Vietnam Service, Vietnam Campaign, United Nations PFC, 39th Inf Plt Scout Dog, 6/22/67 Service, Combat Infantry Badge, Parachutist Badge, and “Erling is buried at Riverside is remembered on Panel 21E, line 20.” Jim McIlhenney Lutheran Cemetery Mondovi WI, 3rd William Joseph Boehm, 19 section from the west, 3rd row in from PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 the west, 1st column in from in front “I wish I could have met you my of cemetery by cemetery sign.” great uncle...memories I have are just James Arnold, 22 pictures and video...thank you for your PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 service and all that you have sacrificed.” “James is buried at New Forksville Unsigned Baptist Church Cemetery in Greenville, SC.” Jeffrey Lawrence Barker, 20 PFC, A/2/503, 6/8/67 “Jeff I knew you as a young kid. You are a true hero..RIP?? You and Ridgefield will never forget you as of this Memorial Day weekend 2016.” Robert Spadavecchia Glen Trevor Bartholomew, SPR, 1 FD SQN, 5/18/67 (continued….) 2/503d VIETNAM Newsletter / May-June 2017 – Issue 73 Page 2 of 97 Robert Ray Boyd, 26 Darrell Wayne Butts, 19 CPT, A/3/319, 5/17/67 PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 “I was a member of the 53rd Signal “Services were pending Tuesday for Battalion and attached to the 173rd Pfc Darrell W. Butts, 19, son of Mr. and Airborne to provide radio relay services Mrs. Harold G. Butts, 336 N. Clifton, for them. Captain Robert Boyd was who died Sunday after being wounded assigned to provide oversight for us. I Jun. 22 in Vietnam. Born in Lawrence, got to know him as he stopped by to Kan., he came here in 1954. He attended chat with us each day, including the morning he was Central Assembly of God Church. He entered the service killed when we were attacked while breaking camp. I after graduating from East High School in 1966.” wrote the following poem which was awarded 2nd place Wichita Eagle this year at the Botetourt County (VA) poetry contest, based on this day. Here is the poem: Carlin Martin, Campbell, Jr., 19 PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 AGENT ORANGE “We called him ‘Terry’. I did not by Ken Conklin know his real name until I found him on The Wall. I last talked to Carlin The Chinook bore down on us once again Martin Campbell Jr. and Michael J. To carry us to the next clearing Waterman on the runway at Dak To on Carved into the jungle by a sinister force June 21, 1967. They were waiting for Three days here and then there the chopper and said they were going on a recon So we could defend the intangible. mission on the mountain. On June 22, 1967 they fought Incoming said the Doppler the NVA until the last of their ammo. Carlin Martin I knew the difference in the sound Campbell Jr. was one of 74 in A Co 2/503, 173 Abn Bde Of acoustical in instead of out to lose his life that day in the Battle of the Slopes. I Then explosions, chaos! think of him often, I will never forget. From a fellow The Chinook flew away. soldier.” JBW I inhaled the dust when it reached me Making its way through my cells Harry Gibson Carter, 29 Attacking me in latent ways SSG, HHC/2/503, 5/30/67 Lying in wait for the right decade “Harry is buried at Lincoln Cemetery To launch an attack. in Montgomery, AL.” While Captain Boyd who found his end that Wednesday Is on the Wall I saw him there when I visited, to say hi And let him know the Chinook did return and take me Leonard James Carter, 19 away PFC, A/2/503, 6/8/67 And that the dusty remnants have finally awakened, “Hi Lenny, This is Tom Schiera, all now. grown up now. It's been almost 50 Gregory Vincent Brady, SPR, 1 FD SQN, 5/20/67 years since I have spoken to you. I was Peter John Bramble, SPR, 1 FD SQN, 5/22/67 only 9 when you left for Vietnam in Feb, 1967. I was also the one who Dennis Lindsay Brooks, SPR, 1 FD SQN, 5/22/67 answered our back door on that Sunday Ervin L. Burns, 28 morning when we learned of your death, when Dallas 1LT, A/2/503, 6/22/67 English came by and told me. Even now, I can still “I still have the void he left me with... remember it like it was yesterday and yet it is still hard now it's 2015 and I still miss him.” to believe you're gone. 19 years old is way too young for His Daughter anyone to die. I still have the silver paratrooper wings that you gave to me the day before you deployed…. (continued….) Albert Butler, Jr., 24, PFC, A/2/503, 6/22/67 “Albert is buried at Jefferson Barracks Nat Cem.” 2/503d VIETNAM Newsletter / May-June 2017 – Issue 73 Page 3 of 97 ….I also want to thank you for having given me all your Ronald Cleveland Clark, 19 old monster models...they were awesome! I think of you SP4, A/2/503, 6/22/67 often and so does my brother, your best friend and “I loved you as only brothers can. brother-in-arms, Sam, who served in Vietnam from Oct. Ronnie and I grew up together in a '67-Oct. ‘68. I will be visiting your grave again on the small cotton mill village called New 50th anniversary of your passing, June 8, 2017. How Holland. It was about a mile east of can it be 50 years already since we lost you? I pray for Gainesville, Ga. We met in grammar your soul Lenny, and I want to thank you for the school and became best friends ultimate sacrifice you made for all of us here at home. immediately, if I wasn't over at his house he was over at You were a brave and honorable soldier. I still wish we'd mine and continued that way until my parents moved had more time to have gotten to know each other; I was away from New Holland and I attended another school just a kid when you left and you were a very young man. only seeing him occasionally. Ronnie and I were closer You are the only person who ever stole my toast and ate to each other than my own 2 brothers and in essence we it in the mornings when you'd come over to get a ride to became brothers of the spirit. I was devastated when I school with Sam. :) Those are memories I recall with a heard that he was killed, before he entered the Army he smile. I miss you Lenny, and I always will. We love you had quit school and gotten married. I was attending a and may God Bless you. Rest in peace, brave soldier.” class in the lunchroom of my school and heard someone Tom hissing and looked inside the kitchen and there he was delivering milk as he and I had worked for a man that James Virgil Chronister, 18 had a milk route delivering milk every morning before PFC, C/2/503, 5/1/67 school and he had gotten Ronnie a job. He told me that “I knew you just for that one week he was going to join the Army and I told him he would you were in my squad.