THE WALL OF FACES

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Dear A1C Michael Widener, Thank you for your service with the 34th Air Base Squadron. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is the 8th Day of Christmas, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance, and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Airman First Class Michael Edward Widener, Served with the 34th Air Base Squadron, 33rd Tactical Group, 13th Air Force.

On June 25, 1965, two powerful terrorists’ bombs exploded in quick succession besides a crowded floating restaurant on the Saigon River, killing at least 38 and wounding about 75. Eight of the dead and 10 of the wounded were Americans. The terrorist strike, about 500 yards from the United States Embassy, was the bloodiest of its kind up to that point in the Vietnam War. The blasts from shore slashed across the luxuriously appointed decks of the restaurant, the My Canh, at about 8:15 PM. The blast broke windows as far as two blocks away. American investigators said one of the bombs was a powerful shaped charge—possibly an American Claymore electric mine—planted into the bank of the river near the restaurant’s awning-covered gangplank. The other was a bicycle bomb. The eight American killed in the blast were military personnel. They included MSGT Douglas H. D'Orsay, A1C Robert J. Smith, A1C Michael E. Widener, PO1C German P. Acosta, SFC Alfred Coombs Jr., PFC Michael J. Ihnat, PFC James T. Brown Jr., and SSGT Charles A. Williamson [“Saigon Bomb Kills 38 in Floating Restaurant.” Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1965]

Dear A1C Michael Edward Widener, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter