THE WALL OF FACES

I want to thank you for your service and everything you done to help. I wish I'd gotten to know you. I did a project about you in my junior year in highschool of people who is my hero. I wanted to get to know my moms side and when I heard about you, I wanted to know more. You are deeply missed, but I'm also proud to call you my uncle.
Your neice
~Hannah Wilson

On the remembrance of your 70th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

My name is Mitchell Kerr. I also was part of 2nd security at that time with Jerry. My impression of him was of a quiet individual with morals (rare for the time) or a cherry boy. On that night as I remember Jerry was on jeep patrol and I was supposed switch with him at the village side/front post area but for some reason I asked him to take my place which he did. Ten minutes later I heard two shots and ran towards the area and ran into a Vietnamese policemen and he told me a red haired MP was shot and killed. Disbelief was my first reaction followed by tears. We later learned the killer was Atlas Ford a young black man who had a pearl handle 45 pistol under his poncho shot Jerry dead instead of a article 15 which is a traffic ticket comparative to the real world. It was strange Ford came out of the Vietnamese navy base on the right of the village which was well fenced in compared to the well traveled fence line holes around the perimeter. Later scuttle butt information came back that Ford was released by his congressmen due to oppression of black men by the military. I hope he got his 20 years according to past post. To his family I remember Jerry every day and always spelled Tuesday as Tewsday. All my good I have done is in Jerry's memory. This is what I recall.

--
MITCHELL KERR
[email protected]

Jerry & I were in the same MP Training Co. (F-10-4) at Ft. Gordon. I am sure we took the same plane from Travis AFB to Vietnam, leaving July 19 (stops in Seattle, Yokoda Air Base (Tokyo), and arrival at Bien Hoa Air Base on the 21st). From there we were bused to the Replacement Batallion at nearby Long Binh. I was stationed first at Nha Trang, in the 272nd MP Co., just a few miles N or Cam Ranh Bay. In November we were deployed to Pleiku. While on duty (between Dec. '71 and Feb. '72), I saw an article in the "Stars and Stripes" titled "Sentence Killer of MP". It said Jerry refused entry to a restricted area to a soldier, Atlas Ford, whereupon Ford left the guard gate, walked a little way down the perimeter, and tried to scale a fence or a wall to gain entry. Jerry confronted him, a struggle ensued, and Ford got a pistol, possibly Jerry's, and shot him.
This story conflicts significantly with one I saw elsewhere on this site. You may want to see if you can find the edition of Stars & Stripes I referenced to verify.

Jerry was as good and "All American" a guy as you could possibly imagine.

Jerry Tew was my uncle. I’m trying to put together stuff to remember him by. My mother was pregnant with me when we lost him. I’m just wanting to know more.