THE WALL OF FACES

High School Friend

Watson is buried at Beaver Creek Cemetery in Huntersville, WV. PH

I was a crew member on a track with the Recon Platoon, 2/34th Armor, 25th Inf Div Tay Ninh RVN. SGT Underwood 11D Armor recon was my TC or track commander. His full name is on my Purple Heart orders. He was a big man. I was badly wounded in combat Feb 29th, 68.

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

WE MET AT FT. CAMPBELL KY THERE WERE A GROUP OF MEN THATH KNEW EACHOTHER WELL FROM THE 508TH AIRBORNE DIV PANAMATHAT WENT TO THE 501INF. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW COOL WATSON WAS THE WAY HE CARRIED HIMSELF SMALL IN STATURE BUT A BIG MAN AT HEART,THE DOC AS HE WAS CALLED .AND A DAM GOOD ONETOO.ONE THE SPOT HE WAS THERE TO GIVE FIRST AID.HE SO MANY TIMES WOULD TEND TO THE WOUNDED WHILE UNDER HEAVEY COMBAT FIRE .AND NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT IT .WE ALL FELT VERY COMFORTABLEBE WITHHIM AS OUR DOC AND SUCH A GREAT SENCE OF HUMOR.WHEN HE DID COME AROUND TO VISIT US IT WAS WONDERFUL TO SEE DOC.AND LISTEN TO THE STORIES WITH HIS WEST VIRGINIA HILLS ACCENT.ONE DAY OLE DOC JUST COULD NOT STOP FROM PUTTING HIS LIFE INDANGER TO HELP SOMEONE HE DID NOT EVEN NO BUT THERE WAS HIS CALL SIGN MEDIC WE NEED A MEDIC AND AS HE CAME TO GIVE AID UNDER ENEMY GUN FIRE HE WAS HIMSELF MORTALLY WOUNED.THAT DAY WAS A GREAT LOST TO US ALL .AND THE MORAL OF THE TROOPERS SHOW.WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER DOC OF WEST VIRGINA.I MISS HIM AND THINK OF THE TIME WE ALL MET AND THE FRIENSHIP WE HAD LOVE YOU DOC GOD BLESS.