WALL NOTE FOURTEEN: BILLIE JOE WILLIAMS DANIEL R. ARANT
[email protected] DATE OF INFORMATION: 07 OCTOBER 2013 “WHEN THE LEGEND BECOMES FACT, PRINT THE LEGEND.” QUOTED FROM JOHN FORD’S THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE STARRING JOHN WAYNE, JAMES STEWART, AND LEE MARVIN. 01. SUMMARY. One of the perennial “tour guide stories” at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is that two servicemen with the exact same name died on the same day. The name of Billie Joe WILLIAMS is inscribed twice on 01W 094. It may make for an interesting story, maybe similar to both John ADAMS and Thomas JEFFERSON dying on 04 July 1826. Two servicemen named Billie Joe WILLIAMS died during the Viet Nam conflict but not on the same day. PFC Billie Joe WILLIAMS, USMC died on 21 March 1966, the result of the shoot down of a UH-34D Seahorse helicopter. Maj. (posthumous Lt. Col.) Billie Joe WILLIAMS, USAF died on 09 December 1972, the result of the shoot down of a RF-4C Phantom II. PFC WILLIAMS more properly belongs on panel 06E; Lt. Col. WILLIAMS is on the correct panel. I can only assume that an unintended error placed the names together. A. In the spirit of “full disclosure,” I, for a short time, told the “Billie Joe WILLIAMS Story.” But fortunately, a few weeks after I became a volunteer, a visitor’s inquiry “set me straight.” See paragraph 08. B. There are also a Billy Joe WILLIAMS and a Billy WILLIAMS on the Wall. (01) Maj. Billy Joe WILLIAMS, USA. Advisory Team 3, MACV Advisors.