Denis Wayne Galloway

West Point, 1964

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by James M. Carson, Jr, Col, USA,(Ret) on May 15, 2000:

To Walt Davis at Washington University, and others in the class and in Denis Galloway's family. Walt, thank you for posting the notice about Mr. Galloway. I was sorry to hear of his passing 04/28/00, and will contact Mrs. Galloway. Denis was my roommate the last two years at West Point. We graduated and after we completed Airborne and Ranger schools, he was assigned to an Engineer unit in Germany. In 1966 he got orders to Vietnam,and to the Engineer Batttalion of the First Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. He was assigned to Cpt Ronnie Brown's company. Denis came by Ft. Campbell to see me briefly while on leave in the US visiting his family. That was the last time I saw him. Then, later in 1966 in Vietnam, when I was with the Vietnamese Airborne, we learned that Denis had been killed in a minefield clearing operation (10/24/66). Later, in 1967, at the Mountain Ranger Camp in Dahlonega, Ga., SSG Fudge told me he had been a squad leader in the platoon with Lt. Denis Galloway as Platoon Leader when he (Denis) was killed. He said that the platoon lost a very good platoon leader that day. Such testimony of one's own soldiers and comrades in combat is the best there is. After his son's death, Mr. Ralph Galloway sent me a letter while I was still in Vietnam. His letter was the saddest and the bravest letter I ever received, giving his blessings to me and the rest of our young men in Vietnam, hoping we would not be killed. There was no rancor or bitterness, just love for other young men like his son. God bless them both, Denis and his Dad. As it has been said, all of us involved in that war will go to our graves regretting the way it was prosecuted by the politicians in charge, how it was reported by an increasingly hostile press after Tet '68. Yet we will remain proud of our own performance of duty in combat and of the ultimate sacrifices made by our lost comrades like Denis. The way the Gulf War was fought and won is a positive reflection on then President Bush, and obviously is a credit to the leadership of Vietnam Veterans like Gen. Colin Powell, Ge. Norman Schwarzkoph, and our own Gen. Barry McCaffrey and others, using the lessons in how not to do it from Vietnam. In some ways the best thing to come out of Vietnam was the Gulf War victory. To paraphrase, "On the fields of that bitter strife, were sown the seeds that on other days and on other fields , did and will again reap the fruits of victory." I hope and pray that now and in the future, we can win the "peace in Vietnam" with our system of democracy and capitalism replacing the debacle of poverty which communism has brought with it and sustained in these many years since 1975. I dedicate these thoughts to Lt. Denis W. Galloway and his Dad, Mr. Ralph Galloway. May they both be received in that Heavenly Kingdom with Christ. Be thou at peace. Jim Carson, Col, U.S.A., (Ret)

admin