THE WALL OF FACES

Crew included CAPT Gordon O. Walsh (KIA), SP5 David Helriegel (KIA), SP5 Walter A. Chatos Jr. (KIA), and MSG John Henry Butcher Jr. (KIA). Five minutes after take-off, the aircraft became uncontrollable. The main rotor blades flexed down on the left rear of the aircraft then flexed down on the engine compartment. The fuel and oil lines broke and the engine ignited. The aircraft fell into the China Sea. [Taken from vhpa.org]

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

Walter is buried at Ft Benning Post Cem. The cemetery says his unit was 335 Trans.

Dear Sir,
I could never thank you enough for your courageous, unselfish sacrifice to our country. You put aside all else that was important to you and gave your life for the sake of freedom. I will never forget what you have done. God bless you.

Gratefully,
Joel Campbell