Col. Roy Abner Knight
602nd Fighter Squadron (Commando)
Air Force

The Wall
Panel 20E, Line 045

Tribute

Then May Roy A. Knight, Jr. reported to the 602nd Fighter Squadron (Commando) at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in January 1967. He flew combat missions almost daily until being shot down May 19, 1967. He was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and six Air Medals for his actions during this time.

Roy loved to hunt and fish, especially with his family. He also loved sports and was a pitcher for his squadron fastpitch softball teams. He restored a 1931 Model A Ford which he finished as he left for war. He was well-liked and respected by the men with whom he served, particularly the enlisted airmen with whom he had a special connection has been one of them for several years. He will always be remembered as a devoted and loving son, brother, husband, father, and friend.

HM 2 Larry Jo Goss

Navy

The Wall
Panel 39E, Line 032

Tribute

Dear Dad,

I did a good job focusing on how you lived until this year when I focused more on how you died. I don’t recommend this but feel you deserved for us to know. You were so brave on the battlefield. A lot of people use the word hero loosely but I do not. Dad you truly were a hero. You spent your last day on this Earth choosing to save the life of your Marines instead of getting yourself off the ridge-like so many of the Marines chose to do.

Finding this out caused a lot of heaviness on my heart but they say the truth will set you free. I hope that is true. This year I found the Lt. from Third Platoon who stayed on the ridge all night. I also found a government document that was never sent to mom. It said that you survived the firefight and hit the ground when the mortars came in. You told Mom in a letter that you and the ground were good friends. Your adrenalin has to be pumping and your mind racing during that chaotic and frightful time. Thank you for surviving the battle. You knew mom and I needed you to come home. Doc Russell told us you were running around the battlefield and that he wanted it known that you did good. We had no doubt that you would. You were so smart dad and so driven to do your best in everything you did. Doc Russell told me that you came up and helped him treat Camron Carter.

Dad, he lived and is in a worship band at his church in Chicago. He knows you and Doc Russell saved his life. He is very grateful and is living life to the fullest completely devoted to God. Doc Russell said that you were alive when he got to Captain Ward. He said you had treated Captain Ward the best you could and then went up the hill where the NVA were to respond to a call for Corpsman Up.

Dad, I discovered this year that it was Frederick Bungartz whose life you were saving when you got killed. He was hit in the chest with a grenade so you shielded his body with your own when the NVA threw the next grenade and killed you. Fredrick died too. I think it was because you could no longer help him. His body laid together with yours for twenty-one days. I know your spirit was already with God and for that I’m thankful. I feel, however, a lot of anger at the people who chose to leave you there for so long.

You deserved so much better treatment than that. You always did what was right and they did not do right by you. I’m so sorry. I know you are in a place where all of that does not matter now. I’ll get to a place of peace again I just lost that this year as I found out so many things that were wrong about the day you were killed.

You told Mom in a letter that if Charlie was good enough to get the Captain that he would probably get you too. As you know Captain Ward died two days later from the injuries he sustained that day. Everyone I’ve talked to said his poor leadership is the reason you and twelve Marines were killed on Valentine’s Ridge. I know it’s not my place to judge. It just all feels so wrong to me.

I love you dad and do my best every day to focus on the joy you lived with. I’m so much like you but not as funny. I do funny things and work as hard as you did. Thank you for giving me so much energy. I love it! Most importantly mom and I love you so very much! You wrote to us and said, “I love you more than you’ll ever know”. You were prophetic in many things that you said. Thank you for telling us so many times how much you loved us. Our lives have not been the same without you. The sadness feels heavier the older I become.

Happy Father’s Day Dad! You were a brave, loving, intelligent, and honest man who deserved all this life can offer. You didn’t get what you deserved and for that, I am truly heartbroken but your grandchildren and I do our best to live our lives to the fullest for you. You would be so very proud of them! I hold onto my hope of heaven and truly believe you, mom, and I will be together again one day. Until then I’ll take care of her the best I can because I know you would have given her such a wonderful life.

Thanks you dad for leaving me such a rich legacy. You are truly the best!!.

Capt. Kenneth Randal Price

Army

The Wall
Panel 5W, Line 101

He was a Soldier.
He was a Daddy.
He will always be greatly missed.

Capt. David Marshall Davies
506 Quartermaster Company
Army

The Wall
Panel 6E, Line 74

Tribute

My father, Captain David Marshall Davies, was mortally wounded in the bombing of the Victoria Hotel in Saigon in the early hours of April 1st, 1966. He died the next day of his injuries, widowing my mother Susan with three small kids (John, 3, Tricia, 2, and Jill, 9 months.) Dad was just three weeks shy of his 26th birthday. Three US military police were also killed in a firefight during the attack – Patrick J Brems, Michael T Mulvaney, and Chester Lee. (Here is a vivid description of that event: https://www.historynet.com/terror-in-the-night-the-victoria-hotel.htm)

I have spent the last dozen or so years getting to know the father I don’t remember. I was lucky that my mom saved many boxes of letters and photos along with a dozen or so reel-to-reel audio tapes that they sent back and forth between Saigon and Seattle. What I discovered is a man who felt stifled and frustrated by the army, who dreamed of getting back to his wife and kids and starting law school. I also learned (thanks to a letter posted on the Vietnam War Memorial website – http://thewall-usa.com/guest.asp?recid=12069) that the only reason he was sent to Vietnam was that someone from another company broke their arm and a replacement was needed with the same rank and credentials. Unlucky to say the least.

In 2009 I was able to travel to Vietnam to experience where he lived and worked: I found the former Victoria Hotel looking almost exactly as it did before the bombing (and scheduled for demolition later that year); I drank a beer in the roof bar of the Hotel Rex where he had sat writing letters; I wandered through the remnants of Camp Davies – the 506 field depot which was the supply hub for the war – dedicated to my dad in October ’66; I visited the hospital where he died of his injuries. I also met other sons and daughters who were there seeking their fathers. It was a pilgrimage I was privileged to make and will never forget.

In February of this year (2020) my 17-year-old son Charlie and I traveled to Washington DC to pay our respects at The Wall. (The irony of naming my son Charlie is not lost on me now, but it never crossed my mind when choosing his name that I was making an unconscious link to the war.) We had a wonderful experience and the good fortune of meeting a Vietnam vet who was also visiting. It was here that a volunteer told me about ‘Sons and Daughters in Touch’ and why I am posting this here today.

This coming April will mark 54 years since my dad lost his life in Vietnam, but his memory is more alive in me now than it ever was, and his grandson is proudly carrying his legacy forward.

I love you Daddy!

SSGT Gregory Dean Unzicker
“D” Co 1st BN, 1/12 Calvary
Army

The Wall
Panel 8W, Line 24

Tribute

My very first Hero… though I’ve never met you. One day, we will be reunited and what a joyous moment that will be.

I love you Daddy!