Posted by Keith Garner on May 30, 2011:

I met "Chuck" in Beast Barracks in 6th Company in July, 1956. We were both Plebes in A-2 until the end of Plebe year, when he and Bill Bailey were transferred to C-2. We continued to have classes together throughout our cadet years. At the end of First Class year we branched Artillery. We, along with many classmates, went to Ranger and Airborne School prior to attending the Artillery Officer Basic Course at Ft. Sill and Ft. Bliss. Toward the end of the Basic Course at Ft. Sill, an officer got up in an assembly and read us an article out of "Time Magazine", which basically said Special Forces officers could leap tall buildings in a single bound, perform an emergency tracheotomy with a pocket knife, and speak 4 or 5 foreign languages fluently. He then asked for volunteers for Special Forces and several of us bachelors did, including Chuck, Bill Bailey, Dan Orr, Pat Flannery, John Denton, "Otto" Sutton, Fred Rice, Bert Spivey, Nick Rowe, Austin Vencil, Jim Hopper, Jack Hixon, Jim Pearl, Tom Tamplin,Don Prosser, and me (as well as others) volunteered. When we arrived at Special Forces headquarters at Ft. Bragg, we learned our Career Branch had played a trick on us and Special Forces, in that Special Forces had no use for inexperienced 2nd Lieutenants, but instead needed experienced 1st Lieutenants, so the cadre tried to run us all off. Stubborn as we were, none left! Headquarters then sent several of us, including Chuck, Bill Bailey, Dan Orr, Pat Flannery, John Denton, Fred Rice, Nick Rowe, Jim Pearl, and me to the Army Language School at the Presidio of Monterey, CA. Chuck, Fred Rice, and I were assigned to take Thai. Chuck and I rented the basement apartment belonging to an Italian fisherman and his wife. About half way through the course, I decided to get married and "persuaded" Chuck to evacuate the apartment and my bride and I moved in. Chuck and Jim Pearl then rented a house together. Chuck later married out there as well. After graduation from the course, we were reassigned back to Ft. Bragg, where most of us were sent to Southeast Asia (mostly Vietnam) for a tour with a Special Forces A Team as executive officers of the teams. Nick Rowe was captured by the VC as a result of that assignment. Chuck was the only one of the SF Thai students to get a utilization tour in Thailand. He trasferred to the Ordnance Corps and got that assignment. He did well in Thailand and used his contacts there later to do quite well in business. Unfortunately, Agent Orange contacted in Vietnam spelled doom for Chuck. He died an agonizing death -- he deserved much better. I miss him very much! Keith Garner A-2

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