THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Sp4 Charles Willard, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Your 53rd anniversary was yesterday, sad. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. 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.

I remember so many things about you, how very smart you were, how playful.
My earliest memory: In second grade at CCDS, when the bell rang for recess, Millie D. and I would follow you from the classroom, hurry down the back steps and race into the playground where we’d chase you and try to pin you down so we could kiss you. (You didn’t run all that fast as I recall...). We were classmates for years until I went away to school. Though I never saw you after that, I’ve never forgotten you. What a courageous young man of service you became. My life was enriched by knowing you. Thank you, Charles.

Specialist Four Charles Randolph Willard Jr., Served with Company K, 75th Infantry Regiment (Rangers), 4th Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

I am touched by these rememberances of my brother. His best friend who returned home from Nam as Charles was deployed,died today. He suffered from PTSD. Please remember all who served, came home and suffered for years!

Rest In Peace Tom Cook, Charlotte, NC
October 17, 2018

Thank you for sweet thoughts.

We met up in the Swiss Alps,w as it 1964? You and your Mom & Dad picked me up in Maienfeld. We drove to Lichtenstein for dinner. We had wine! We'd been on one real date in Charlotte,just days before my family moved to Geneva. It was kind of awkward,one of your friends had to come along,he had a driver's licence. We went to a movie,"Lolita". (X rated!). I wanted to hold your hand but you were pretty grumpy...When we met again I remembered my crush on you. It was a really fun evening with you and your parents. I had a photo of us, you had lifted me onto the stone supporting the gate to the old city. It doesn't matter that I can't find it. That's a Kodak in my mind. I remember you.