THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. While all deaths in Vietnam are tragic that you died one day before your 24th birthday is especially so. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear Cap Robert Thomas, Thank you for your service as a Tactical Aircraft Pilot. Glad you were identified in 1978, Welcome Home. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is another summer. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it still needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

You will forever remain in our hearts and prayers

IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE FINE

FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME SON OF

CAPTAIN ROBERT JAMES THOMAS

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

ALL - PRO LINEBACKER

DERRICK VINCENT THOMAS

1 JANUARY 1967 - 8 FEBRUARY 2000 / 33

== https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Thomas ==

== https://www.profootballhof.com/players/derrick-thomas/ ==

== https://footballfoundation.org/hof_search.aspx?hof=2369 ==

== https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8540/derrick-vincent-thomas ==

Born in 1967 in Miami, Florida, DERRICK VINCENT THOMAS was drafted 4th overall as a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs playing his entire 11-year career with the Chiefs from 1989 to 1999.

He was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, was named an All-Pro 8 times and was voted to 9 Pro Bowls.

He is ranked 9th on the all time list with 126 ½ sacks, holds the record for most sacks in a single game with 7 and had 649 career tackles.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Operation Linebacker II was a U.S. 7th Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign, conducted against targets in North Vietnam during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The operation took place December 18-29, 1972, leading to several informal names such as "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombings." Linebacker II was a "maximum effort" bombing campaign to destroy major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas, which could only be accomplished by B-52s. It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II. During Operation Linebacker II, a total of 741 B-52 sorties were dispatched to bomb North Vietnam; 729 completed their missions. B-52s dropped a total of 15,237 tons of ordnance on eighteen industrial and fourteen military targets, including eight surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, while fighter-bombers added another 5,000 tons of bombs to the tally. Another 212 B-52 missions were flown within South Vietnam in support of ground operations during the campaign. North Vietnamese forces fired about 1,240 SAMs. The Air Force lost 15 B-52 bombers, which amounted to a loss rate of less than two percent. Ten B-52s were shot down over the North and five others were damaged and crashed in Laos or Thailand. Thirty-four B-52 crew members were killed or missing in action, another thirty-three became prisoners of war, and twenty-six more were rescued. The lost B-52 crewmen included SMSGT Walter L. Ferguson, LTC Donald L. Rissi, CAPT Robert J. Thomas, CAPT Henry C. Barrows, MAJ Richard W. Cooper Jr., CMSGT Charlie S. Poole, MAJ Irwin S. Lerner, CMSGT Arthur V. McLaughlin Jr., LTC Randolph A. Perry Jr., LTC John F. Stuart, CAPT Craig A. Paul, MAJ Warren R. Spencer, MSGT Charles J. Bebus, COL Keith R. Heggen, COL Edward H. Johnson, MAJ Robert R. Lynn, CAPT Donavan K. Walters, CAPT Randall J. Craddock, MAJ Charles E. Darr, COL Bobby A. Kirby, CAPT George B. Lockhart, CAPT Ronald D. Perry, COL Frank A. Gould, COL Gerald W. Alley, MAJ Thomas W. Bennett Jr., CAPT Joseph B. Copack Jr., CAPT Robert J. Morris Jr., MAJ Nutter J. Wimbrow III, LTC Donald A. Joyner, MAJ Lawrence J. Marshall, CAPT Roy T. Tabler, CAPT James M. Turner, 1LT Bennie L. Fryer, and LTC Allen L. Johnson. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and airforcemag.com]