Posted by Richard H. Sugg on June 22, 2006:

I spent my last night in VietNam with Andy Underwood. I had finished my tour as an ARVN Infantry advisor, and got a two week drop to go to the Army War College. Andy showed me his wounds from his second tour; this was his third--his first was 6 months out of Okinawa and did not "count." He wanted to serve with American troops, but his experiences must have made him too valuable to let go. He had just taken command of the VN long range patrol advisory group that was in the process of standing down; he thought that he might get an early return home, too. He took me to the Saigon airport. During the layover coming home with my family from Australia, I telephoned the number in Hawaii he gave me for Val; it had been disconnected. My only thought was that Andy must have gotten a drop, too. It was not until told by classmates at the AWC that I learned Andy had been killed, just three days after I saw him. We first met when he would come to study, as a "day hop" living in DC, in my, Bob Morris', and Frank Greer's room at Sullivan's Prep. He and Bill Harper came to Ft. Benning, where I was a dependent, and we took the WP entrance exams together; that is when I first saw how athletic Andy was. First assignment for both of us was at Benning, where our first-borns shared a crib on one occasion. Stationed together again at WP. We miss our good friend. Dick Sugg

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