Posted by Jerry Frick on December 12, 2001:

I met Randy 2 Aug 1969 at Ft. Knox where we were both new Armor Officer Basic students, Randy fresh out of West Point and me newly on active duty after an ROTC commission at UCSB in 1968. We shared a room and his green 1967 Mustang convertible. Three of us lived in Elizabethtown for a week until the BOQ opened up. The other fellow came down with hepatitis and was released from active duty. One memorable event started in the O club where Randy had his eye on a lady, as usual. She had a friend so he insisted I come along for the friend. Off to Louisville. The friend, later a flight attendant on the Everglades 1011 crash, and I took Randy's car for drive. At this time I discovered she was married when her husband drove up alongside and fired three shots at us. She claimed it was a starter pistol. We went back, picked up randy and returned to the BOQ. In the AM the Mustang had a flat. Changing it, we discovered a 22 round - some starter pistol. Another time we took the Mustang down to his relative's home, an aunt I think, near Nashville. Delightful lady. Randy and I were MI branch. After AOB he went off for his regular Army combat branch tour in Germany while I, a reservist, went to Ft. Holabird for MI branch training, then jump school and Special Forces Officer Basic. As it turned out, we ended up in Vietnam around the same time. Randy's mother was living in Hong Kong while his father, a retired Colonel, worked for the US and lived in Cholon. Randy';s duty was in Saigon. I was in the north but found myself in Saigon monthly and he showed me around, including his father's villa with Nung guards. Once out, we kept in loose touch by Christmas cards. I had not heard from Randy for some time and used RefDesk to search so this year's card would not come back. It's been a couple of hours now and I still cannot get it straight that this really fun young guy so full of life is gone, and gone eight years. At this late date I suppose the readers of this mail will either be those really close to Randy who check all the time, or folls like me who, having met long ago, could not forget the irreverent class clown. He drove some of the Armor School instructors nuts with his jokes. We compared a lot of notes - from his perspective of Valley Forge Military Prep and the Point to mine of Notre Dame and UCSB. God speed Randy. Thanks for your friendship.

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