THE WALL OF FACES

Say not in grief he is no more, but live in thankfulness that he was.

In the early years of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force lacked the engineering capability to quickly respond to wartime construction and disaster recovery efforts on U.S. bases. Demands were beyond the scope of a regular civil engineering unit, and the Air Force needed a squadron that could construct overseas airfields and build facilities in the most challenging conditions supporting forward deployed tactical units. In September 1965, the Air Force created two units with the name REDHORSE, an acronym meaning “Rapid Engineering Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron Engineer.” These two units would be sent to Southwest Asia. One was the 554th Civil Engineering Squadron (CES). The 554th CES deployed to Phan Rang Air Base, RVN, in February 1966, where its first major project was a complete runway reconstruction. In the summer of 1966, A2C Robert J. Lawlor and A2C Kenneth Partlow were serving with the 554th CES when they were critically burned while assigned trash burning duties at Phan Rang. Reportedly, the two airmen had transported four loads of trash from a construction site to the sanitary fill area where a flash explosion occurred. To expedite the burning, the two airmen poured a mixture of diesel oil and gasoline on the trash. While pouring the fuel mixture, fumes came in contact with smoldering embers underneath the trash pile causing an explosion. Both men rolled in a puddle of water to extinguish the flames about their bodies, then walked approximately 100 yards to the construction site where they were administered first aid by a U.S. Air Force medical corpsman. Approximately 30 minutes after the accident, both airmen were air evacuated by helicopter to a Qui Nhon medical facility, and subsequently air evacuated to Clark Air Force Base Hospital in the Philippines. Partlow was later being transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, TX, when he expired in flight on August 27, 1966. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Lawlor was transferred to Tachikawa Air Base in Japan where he expired September 4, 1966. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org; obituary from the Troy Times Record (Troy, NY), September 9, 1966, courtesy of Taylor, Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse NY]

Dear A2C Robert Lawlor, Thank you for your service with the 554th Combat Engineer Squadron. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. For many of us, we have begun Lent. The time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

Didn't know you well, but we served together in Phan Rang, will always remember you and the day you left us.

Hope to see you some day in Heaven, where I know you are.

Dear A2C Robert James Lawlor, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter