Richard McWilliams

Jay Ward sent me this letter last night. Included in it was a story about Richard McWilliams. I am forwarding the email to all of you. I will find a way to have it available at the reunion.

Janet

Hi Janet,

I've been keeping up with the preparations for our 50th year reunion on the NHS web site. I won't be able to attend, but I'm hoping I can contribute something if there is an opportunity to recognize the military veterans from our class.

I have written a short piece concerning the death of Richard McWilliams which is attached. I hope you can find a place for it in your program.

Good luck and have a great reunion.

Jay Ward

I hadn’t yet met Major Wilson face to face. Our only contact up to this time was by radio. When the squadron’s tactical operations center was in the field it usually set up at a fire support base closest to its troops’ areas of operation for ease of command and communications. Occasionally a convenient fire base wasn’t close enough when the ops center was in a more remote location. In those cases, it required night time security and pulled in a cavalry platoon for that purpose. I was once tasked for that duty in the fall of 1969.

After my day’s operation was over, I road marched to the ops center and set up my tanks and armored personnel carriers around its perimeter. We set up the usual night time defensive measures; trip flares, Claymore mines, and rocket propelled grenade screens in front of our vehicles. I was walking around the perimeter checking on our preparations when I encountered Major Wilson on the perimeter road. We introduced each other and began making small talk. The evening was cool and as dusk settled, the sky was a brilliant display of evening colors; intense hues of reds, oranges, and blues with black highlights as the sun went down. It was a beautiful setting.

Wilson asked me the obvious question all GIs are asked at such times; “Where are you from back in the world?” (i.e., the US). I said Oklahoma. “Really?” he responded. “Where abouts?” I replied “Norman. It’s about the center of the state.” “I know exactly where it is”, he said. What followed was a conversation I’ll never forget.

Wilson told me that on his first Vietnam tour, he was with the first units of the 101st Airborne Division, one of the most elite and famous units in the Army, when it deployed to Vietnam. A captain then, he commanded a jeep mounted reconnaissance troop of the 17th Cavalry. He said the first soldier killed in his unit was a young man from Norman. I literally staggered back a step. I said, “His name was Richard McWilliams.” Now it was Wilson’s turn to be shocked. I told him Richard and I knew each other since junior high school, graduating in the same high school class in 1964. He was the first person from Norman killed in Vietnam. Wilson told me Richard was killed “about 10 kilometers down that road”, pointing to the road nearby.

Wilson’s troop ran into a large Viet Cong basecamp and was soon engaged in a heavy fight. Several of his men were wounded including Richard. Outnumbered and out gunned, they withdrew from the fight and regrouped, taking their wounded with them except for Richard who had been isolated from the others. They couldn’t get to him before they pulled back. It’s an article of faith in the Army that we don’t leave a soldier on the battlefield, alive or dead. Therefore, after regrouping, Wilson wanted to go back and get Richard but he didn’t feel right ordering anyone to do it because of the risk. Wilson told me Richard was very popular within his troop. He always had a smile and it seemed like he would break into laughter at any moment. That was the Richard I knew, all right. When Wilson asked for volunteers to recover Richard’s body, to a man, the whole troop asked to go back in.

They encountered more heavy fire and suffered more wounded, but they recovered Richard’s body and withdrew once again. The fight was over for that day. Richard’s death was a heavy blow to the men in Wilson’s unit.

I was deeply moved by Major Wilson’s story. Later I thought about the random set of circumstances that had to have occurred to get me at the right place and time to hear that story from Richard’s former commander, and so close to where the incident occurred. It was an eerie feeling.

Jay Ward

Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, (Retired)