THE WALL OF FACES

It surely doesn't seem that long ago that we had made plans to get together in Fort Worth, me being from Baytown it wasn't that far. Since Allen you hadn't changed any. still cracking jokes and funny as ever. I left country 27 July 68 and you were killed 3 weeks later. My heart was broken. It still is.

TK was sought after as a friend at Allen Military Academy for his qualities as a man. I can remember him through the veil of the years with fondness.
Our school, as we knew it, doesn't exist any more, but when the last of us leave, we'll have that get together and be as we were.

I went to Allen Military Academy with TK. in 1963 and 1964. I left the Academy and went back to Baytown TX which is where Im from. I got drafted August 16,1966 and eventually would end up in Viet Nam. One day I was on a special OPS situation in the HoBo Woods and I saw this guy who looked like TK. It was him and boy did we have a reunion. Just like his old self. He was driving a M-48 Tank and was attached to my Battallion 4/23 (Mech) 25th Infantry Division. We made plans to get together when we got home but unfortunately 3 weeks after I left country TK was KIA. Every Veterans Day I talk to him.

T.k. and joined the army on the "Buddy Plan" 21 July 1966. We went through basic training at Ft.Polk, La. and AIT training at Ft.Knox, Ky. We were separated in Jan. 1967 (on our way to Korea) when we landed in Tokyo, Japan. We were stationed about 10 miles apart in Korea. TK didn't like his company commander.He tried several times to get transferred to my unit but his C.O. defined his requests. He finally volunteered for Vietnam. We met at Camp Casey (a rec.center) before he left Korea. That was the last time that I saw him alive. At his funeral in 1969: I wept uncontrollably, as they played TAPS and still remember him every time that I hear it played. I MISS T.K.SMITH. a man never had a better friend

Was he ever in Dong Tam with the 9th Infantry Division? Was he also a door gunner on helicopters, if so I believe he and I was in the same unit at one time. He may have gotten transferred to another unit that's when president Nixon was drawing the 9th Infantry Division first.