THE WALL OF FACES

In memory of an Ia Drang hero.

Duty -- Honor -- Country

I read of you and the others at IaDrang in "We Were Soldiers Once And Young."

Yes we were.

You were a very good man.
Godspeed Thomas!


Outrider

"It had been a bloody, furious battle all afternoon at XRay.

Hal Moore and his men clung desperately to a football-sized

clearing at the foot of the Chu Pong Massif, a high mountain

mass that ran into Cambodia, five miles distant.

Moore's battalion had suffered dozens of men killed and scores

wounded. Among the dead: tall, rangy, Captain Tom Metsker,

a graduate of The Citadel in the Class of 1961, and Moore's

S-2, or battalion intelligence officer. He had been wounded in

the shoulder in the opening minutes of the battle and, later, had

been sent to a helicopter for medical evacuation. Already aboard

the chopper, Tom noticed a stretcher party bringing a much more

seriously wounded officer, Captain Ray Lefevre, to the crowded

helicopter. Tom got off to give his place to Ray, and as he

stood in the open door a sniper shot him in the back. He fell

into the chopper and was dead when it reach Pleiku/Camp Holloway.

I mention this because 33 years later I would marry Tom Metsker's

daughter, Karen, and today I am helping to raise Tom's three

grandchildren."





Transcribed from-



A REPORTER'S JOURNAL FROM HELL

by Joe Galloway

Exclusive to

The Digital Journalist

You service shall never be forgotten and I think that you getting out of that helicopter to let Mr. Lefebvre on that helicopter was very brave of you. Thank you for your service and I think that you did everything that you could as a soldier.

Thomas C. Metsker, Citadel Class of 1961, KIA 1965, IA Drang Valley, Viet Nam