THE WALL OF FACES

We were freshman roommates at Wake Forest Universtity. He was a gentle and caring man. He had the physical abilities to play Pro football . I have visited the Wall three times and ea h time I seek out his name . A life cut short way to soon. RIP old friend.
William ( Bill ) J Parker Jr.
Colonel (R) US ARMY

Bill and I trained together at Fort Benning: Infantry Officer Basic, Jump School and Ranger School. He was the biggest guy in every school, maybe the biggest guy on the Post. We shared an apartment at the Camelia Motel. Got me hooked on reading The Cherokee Scout so I knew who was visiting who around Murphy. Cruised Victory Drive in his big sedan to whatever restaurant happened to be serving "All You Can Eat." Jumped out of an airplane one scary night with him behind me, knowing he fell faster than everyone else.

Say "Bill Graves" and my son can tell you stories for an hour. He's heard me tell them so many times, he's got them all memorized. He even wrote a song about Bill, a guy who died years before he was born. That pretty much tells it.

Bill was my Ranger Buddy, and the best man I have ever known. Because he was big, easy going, and funny; he was often picked out by the cadre at Ranger school for extra attention and harassment. It was not an accident he was #1 in our Ranger class.
I was glad to read from one of the guys who served with him about what a good officer he was. I had no doubt about that, but glad to see it recognized. I hate that the Army split up Rangers at that time rather than operating as a unit like today. We should have served together. We were supposed to meet in Australia for R&R. I miss Bill so much.

He was my aunt's son, a couple of years younger than I. Very feisty and strong-willed, but we got along fine. I carried him home from school once, part of the way on my back, when he missed the school bus, but lost touch after 1956 when I joined the Navy. Wept in I learned that he was killed. Billy was a good officer and was determined to doing his duty for the country.

Thank you Lt. Graves for your leadership and courage under fire.