THE WALL OF FACES

Warrant Officer Robert Kirkbride Evereat III, Served with A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Kirk,
At a young age I remember you and I playing together with our toy plastic soldiers in the dirt of the flowerbed. You were gung ho even then. Whenever I am in Washington D.C. I must always make my pilgrimage to the wall and find your name again and again. We had some good times. I will eventually see you again and we can catch up on all the years.
Ray

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever…..

Warrant Officer Robert K. Everest, III, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, with Oak Leaf Cluster, for his heroism and extraordinary achievement while engaged in aerial flight. He served as a Helicopter Pilot and was assigned to A TRP, 1ST SQDN, 9TH CAVALRY, 1ST CAV DIV.
See https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ROHPage&personType=Fallen

On May 14, 1970, a U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A (tail number 67-16199) from A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, was conducting a reconnaissance mission within Cambodia when it was hit by enemy groundfire and crashed. Three crewmen were lost in the incident. They included pilot WO1 Robert K. Everest III, gunner SP4 Kenneth M. Walls Jr., and observer SP4 Lawrence R. Geiger. There are two accounts for this incident: First Account - “WO1 Everest was flying low bird on a recon north of Katum. We were looking for a Huey crew that had crashed or been shot down; we had located the aircraft but not the crew. Everest came under heavy fire from several RPD's (7.62mm light machine guns) and AK's using API (armor-piercing incendiary) rounds. Everest called taking fire and there was a small inflight-explosion. The aircraft then nosed into the bamboo and exploded on impact. I witnessed the whole thing and tried to evacuate the crew but took too many hits.” (Glen Senkowski); Second Account – The CO (Commanding Officer) sent him (Everest) out with Geiger, who was a top door gunner. The observer was a kid (Walls) who wanted to fly on his birthday. They were in the AO (Area of Operations) only twenty minutes when we got the call to scramble. On the way out we got the word that the pilot (Everest) had been hit doing a cloverleaf and was nose down in the ground. When we got there, Geiger was standing on the observer’s side of the aircraft trying to rescue the kid. The LOH (OH-6A) started to smoke, then it exploded. Geiger forgot the number one rule—that you throw out all the grenades and ammo as soon as you crash. That stuff just enhanced the explosion. There were twenty-five or thirty white phosphorous grenades on the LOH. (From Roger Paulmeno; Note: SP4 Walls died on his 19th birthday) [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Glen Senkowski (October 1998) at vhpa.org; also, information provided by Roger Paulmeno in the book “Headhunters: Stories from the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, in Vietnam 1965-1971” by Matthew Brennan]