Robert Frank Serio

West Point, 1964

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Ken Bloomfield on March 17, 2003:

In 1968, on St. Patrick's day, I met with our classmate, Bob Serio in Vietnam. He was in an armored cav outfit, I forget the name, that stopped in my perimeter for the night. The unit was on a road march and the stop over was just by chance. I was happy to see Bob since I had not seen him since we were in Air Ground School together in Germany a few years before. Rose had sent me some of those green plastic hats everyone wears on SP day. Bob and I sat in my bunker wearing the green hats and drinking iced tea from our canteen cups. In the Big Red One, there was nothing stronger allowed. We swapped stories for awhile and Bob told me he was the S4 and looking forward to becoming a Company Commander or whatever they call COs in the cav. I had been a CO for over 9 months at the time and told Bob he should be happy with being an S4. He said no, he was going to pursue the slot and felt he would get the nod very soon. They pulled out the next morning to continue their march. I said good bye to Bob and gave him a salute and wished him luck. Bob was KIA on April 17, 1968. I was glad I was able to share his last St. Patrick's day with him. I always think of that time with a lump in my throat. I thought I would share this with you and maybe we can all toast Bob today with something other than iced tea.

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