THE WALL OF FACES

The “Friends of Rocky Versace” once again remember one of Frank Meszar's USMA 1966 classmates, CPT William Douglas Booth, on what would’ve been his 76th birthday - 13 November 2017.

DEAR CAPTAIN BOOTH,
THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE AS AN AIDE-DE-CAMP, AND WEST POINT GRADUATE. TODAY IS THE 42ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF SAIGON. I AM SO SORRY. IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG FOR ALL OF YOU TO HAVE BEEN GONE. WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU HAVE DONE, AND YOUR SACRIFICE. WATCH OVER THE U.S.A., IT STILL NEEDS YOUR COURAGE. GOD BLESS YOU. MAY THE ANGELS BE AT YOUR SIDE. REST IN PEACE. YOU ARE ALL IN OUR PRAYERS.

The “Friends of Rocky Versace” remember one of Frank Meszar's USMA 1966 classmates, CPT William Douglas Booth, on what would’ve been his 75th birthday - 13 November 2016.

On May 12, 1970, a U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H (tail number 68-16342) from the 937th Engineer Group was hit by enemy fire and crashed in rough terrain in the Central Highlands, 10 miles southwest of Pleiku and 220 miles northwest of Saigon. The aircraft was brought down by an enemy .51 caliber anti-aircraft gun while COL Carroll E. Adams Jr., commander of the 937th Engineer Group, was giving an aerial tour to MGEN John A.B. Dillard, head of the United States Army Engineer Command in South Vietnam. Both MGEN Dillard and COL Adams, plus eight other Americans were killed in the incident. The lost crew included aircraft commander CW3 Glenn A. Adams, pilot COL Adams Jr. (posthumously promoted to brigadier general), pilot CAPT Raymond R. Dulak Jr., crew chief SP5 Steven R. Renner, and gunner SP4 James H. Rawson. The five lost passengers included MG Dillard, LTC Fred V. Cole, CAPT William D. Booth, 1LT Kenneth F. Rogers, and CSM Griffith A. Jones. A sixth passenger, SMAJ Robert W. Elkey, was the only survivor and was seriously injured. [Taken from vhpa.org, arlingtoncemetery.net, wikipedia.org, and coffeltdatabase.org]

CPT William Douglas Booth was an alumnus of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. He was one of 335 men from West Point who died or are MIA in Southeast Asia/Indochina during the period October, 1957 – September, 1972. “Well done; Be thou at peace.”