Hist - HanoiH 03

' Tom Walles spent eight years in Vietnam and Thailand with the US Army Special Forces. During his time in the Central Highlands Tom particularly remembers one broadcast.

We had a young Lieutenant who had just turned twenty-two years old and we wanted him to come down and celebrate his birthday at headquarters. He got in a sampan with a couple of security guards and they started down the river. One of the enemy reached out and handed them a grenade and killed two of them in the boat. We found the boat later and there was a birthday card bought at an American PX pinned to his chest that said Happy Twenty-First Birthday, Lieutenant...this will be your last. A day or two later we picked up Hanoi Hannah saying that, "Uh congratulations to Lieutenant so and so, it's too bad he won't make his twenty-third birthday."

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Commentary by Tom Walles