Posted by Vic Robertson on May 28, 2023:

Like Kelley, I just stumbled on this web page, but 15 years after Kelley, and far too long after Lance's death. Like everyone else here, he made an impression on me. To me Lance was a mystery in plain sight. We knew exactly who he was, exactly what he thought, and exactly what he wanted. That was the mystery. I was in E-2 the first two years with Lance, and kept in touch after the shuffle, but went to opposite sides of the campus--I to the Lost 50s and he to 1st Reg, so we didn't connect very often. I never served with him after graduation. Candidly, I don't remember him in my IOBC class or Ranger class 1-80. Have to say, I'm glad we weren't ranger buddies. No way he'd have let me make coffee while on security. He might have reported me to the RI--for my own good and the good of the patrol. It is difficult to describe my true thoughts about Lance as a person. It is easy to say the easy things: he was crazy, he was warped, he was intense, he was single-minded, he was 90 degrees off or 180 out, he wanted to kill. I think my true attitude toward him was curiosity and a desire to turn his intensity to his benefit. I always thought he would get in trouble. How could he not? He was never at peace. He was at war with himself, I think, and wanted war as an outlet. Why were he and I so different? He was thoughtful about things but ended up with VERY different ideas. I admired Sam Damon. I didn't know who he admired. Another eulogy here said he admired Stalin. Like Lance, I wanted to be a warrior too. My father was an Infantry Colonel who excelled in Vietnam as a battalion commander fighting the NVA on the Ho Chi Min Trail. But my dad was also a loving father, devoted to my mother. I never met Lance's parents, but from listening to Lance I got the feeling that his dad was all hard and no soft. That's what Lance admired and emulated, and as with everything he took the "hard" to the extreme. Plebe year, his intensity and oddness disturbed us so much that his classmates in E-2 rated him poorly. We were trying to get him kicked out. Then I and others decided he had to stay. The Army needed him. The details are blurred now, but I remember a bunch of us campaigning to get everyone to rate him well. It worked. He stayed. Yearling year, in a history class, there was a discussion about counter-insurgency. I was not there, but as told to me, Lance's solution to discouraging insurgents was to put their heads on pike's as a warning. Very cold, very forceful, very Lance. I never doubted the story. At West Point I became a follower of Jesus Christ. Several of us who were Lance's friends talked to him about Jesus, hoping to show him the God we had found. We knew that if he followed Jesus he would be the next Paul or at least the next Billy Graham. It didn't happen. Perhaps the "gentle Jesus" was not militant enough in his first coming. We should have emphasized his second coming when Jesus will return as a warrior king on a horse leading his followers in battle. Revelation 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Yeah. Lance might have followed a tatted up Jesus with flaming eyes who judges, who makes war, wears a robe dipped in blood and rules with a rod of iron. I am glad to read the other eulogies here that described how Lance really died. The story I heard was he died in a knife fight in a bar in Thailand. I never doubted it. The truth is better and still fitting. Very few people are literally unforgettable as was Lance. I liked him, admired his pure focus, and I'm sorry that he's gone. Perhaps his end was inevitable, but I'd like to think not. I think that if we had a beer together now, and he talked about his life, I would envy him, and would still wonder how a man like him could exist in this century.

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