Posted by Weyman Wong on February 5, 2014:

I met then US Army Special Forces Capt. Charles Scudder in Nov., 1965, when my USAF medical team was bivouacked with the Special Forces, our mission then to provide care for the native Vietnamese because most of the Vietnamese physicians had been drafted for the war effort, leaving the natives without proper care. Thus, I was fortunate to share a room under a tent with Chuck the entire year I was deployed at Camp Widder, which held about 30 members of a Special Forces B-team in distant Binh Long Province many miles away from any large American compound, the province holding about 50 Americans before our team of 16 arrived. He was the S-5 officer in charge of intelligence operations. During that year, he impressed me with his professional bearing, always behaving like a role model officer. I expected no less after I'd learned he was a graduate of West Point. Although his obituary doesn't mention it, I recall he hailed from a family of West Point graduates and Army officers. I recall how thankful I felt that this nation had such a line of officers to defend it. Throughout that entire year of sleeping under our mosquito nets waiting to fall asleep, we'd chatter about everything under the sun. I learned he valued earning the Congressional Medal of Honor as his utmost goal, while mine was merely to stay alive to return to California. He was truly a soldier's soldier. The odd part of our time together was that I'd never heard him utter a profanity. While just about everyone would incorporate profanity into his speech during that year in a combat arena, Charles was unique, ever proper, and ever the gentleman. May he rest in peace. I'm a better man after knowing him. Capt. Weyman Wong, USAF (MC), ret.

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