IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND

       GARY HAWKINS

JANUARY 12 1948 - OCTOBER 24 1967

Gary was one of my two closest friends from my high school days.  He was a tall, gangly red head. He was one of the kindest, and gentlest people I ever knew.  He rescued my sorry butt and saved me from a year of depression when I had to transfer schools between my junior and senior years.

I was forced to transfer to Butler High School, when the new administration at Bishop David High School told me I was behind on my tuition payments, and they were cancelling my work-study program.  I was going to have to leave all my familiar classmates & teachers and start all over again at a new school where I only knew a small handful of people.

I was introduced to Gary by a mutual friend, Charlie Mayer, who was a fellow manager for the BD football team.  We hung out together alot the spring and summer before my senior year.

Gary took me under his wing and introduced me to all his friends and helped to make my Senior year one of the best years of my young life.  All that summer of 1966, I hung out with Gary and his friends, especially the friends in his band, "The Profiles".   I especially liked his singing partner, Mark Crane, who was one of the funniest guys I'd ever met.  Man, those two could sing!

I would go to all their gigs at "Teen Clubs" and high school dances, and hang out with Gary and the band even when they weren't playing.  We always had one hell of a good time, especially the time we all went on a huge "camping trip" to Rough River.  I've never laughed so much in my life. It was great.

Once school started, my other great friend, Ron Bowling would drop me off at Gary's house on his way to school.  I was welcomed into the Hawkins family as if I were one of them.  Mrs. Hawkins would fix us breakfast every morning and Gary & I would walk to school which was only 1/2 block from Gary's house.

He had a great sense of humor, but he also had a real serious side to him.  He challenged me by engaging me in serious conversations about life, love, religion, politics, and speculations about our lives in the future.

We talked quite a bit about the war in Vietnam, which was really beginning to dominate the news that year.  We both new that since we weren't going to college after high shcool, we were going to be facing the draft soon after our 18th birthdays. 

I wasn't keen on the idea of going off to war, but Gary was an idealist. He was very patriotic and thought that maybe he could make a difference over there.  He wanted to do something dramatic. He even talked about volunteering to be a door-gunner on a helicopter, a very dangerous job.  I was leaning toward joining the Navy Reserve because they only had a two-year enlistment program and it would allow me to be eligible for the G.I. Bill when I got out.

Gary wanted to join the Army, but he didn't like the idea of a four-year enlistment either.  He had great plans for his life after the Army, and he didn't want to wait that long.  He wanted to return to Louisville and work at General Electric. He wanted to buy a brand new 1969 Camaro - canary yellow with black tuck-and-rolled leather seats.  Most of all, he wanted to marry Debbie.  She was the great love of his life.  He certainly didn't want to wait four years to get started on his grand plan.

Then, Gary found out that you could "volunteer for the draft" (a two year commitment) & it would allow you to sign up with a friend on what they called "the buddy system".

Gary asked me to go with him.

I was frozen with fear, but I didn't want to tell him that, so I made up some lame-assed excuse about needing to stay around the house for another year to help my mother with the household  expenses.   I'm sure he knew it was a lie, but he never challenged me on it.  I think he knew how afraid I was and didn't want to make me feel worse.

He ended up joining the Army with a friend of his from middle-school, who would go AWOL from boot camp, and later was arrested for desertion & spent several years in a Federal Penetentiary in Levenworth.

Gary didn't hold that against him either. That's the kind of friend he was; he always understood.

After Advanced Infantry Training he went to Ft. Lewis in Washington where he became a part of the 25th Infantry Division and was shipped out to Vietnam in July of 1967. 

He was 19 years old.

He was assigned to Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25 Infantry Division. "Tropic Lightning"

According to the Vietnam Veterns Memorial Wall web site:

His tour began on Jul 11, 1967

He was killed on Oct 24, 1967

In BINH DUONG, SOUTH VIETNAM

HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY

GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE

Body was recovered

Panel 28E - Line 60

I still don't know any official details about the nature of his death.

After the funeral, his dad told me that he was shot in the back of the head while trying to pull a wounded soldier to safety in a ditch.

He only wrote me a couple of letters while he was over there, but I remember that in one letter he told me how he had witnessed a friend of his from advanced Infantry training, being pinned down by sniper fire out in the middle of a clearing.  By the time they were able to reach him, he had bled to death.  The memory of that event really haunted Gary.  I believe that was in August or September.  I have often wondered if maybe that experience is what made Gary go out to try and rescue his fellow soldier on the day he was killed. 

I'll never be sure, but it sounds like the Gary Hawkins I knew.

God knows, I miss him still.

The Profiles at St. Helen's teen club c. 1966

Sonny            Mike                                   Gary             Mark      "Moose"       John          Jim ???

Blandford        Howard                              Hawkins         Crane    Mollyhorn      Carby

                                               Eddie

                                            Abraham 

Below is a picture from St. Helen's teen club Halloween Party - October 1966.

That's Gary on the left, looking in disbelief at the idiot in the coffin, which incidently was me.  We built that coffin in my basement & Ron Bowling and a couple of other friends carried me into the teen club while I laid in the coffin.  The people at the door made them open the lid, so I could pay my way in.  I should have bit 'em.

Count "Burkula" ???

BACK TO THE VIETNAM WAR PAGE

See updated info below

After I created this dedication page I began to search the Internet to see if I could find any information about Gary's Army unit.  On a web site for the 25th Infantry, I found a page where veterans had signed a guest book and included their Unit designation.  I looked for vets from Delta Company, 2/27 and found a couple of entries where the email address was included.  I sent a request for information from anyone who remembered Gary while he was in Vietnam.

Just a few days later I received a reply from a Veteran named Dave Plumley. Not only did he remember Gary, he was with Gary on the same patrol the day he died. Dave was wounded in the same fire fight.

We wrote each other back and forth a couple of times and Dave said he would look through his old photos to see if he could find a picture from Vietnam that had Gary in it.  He wasn't able to find one, but he did send me a couple of other pictures, and his own description of what happened on that day when Dave was wounded and Gary died.

The pictures and Dave's retelling of the event appear below.

Dave Plumley, wherever you are, I owe you a great debt of gratitude.

Thanks,

Coach Burke

“NO FEAR ON EARTH”

Some things are not easy to talk about and this is one those. I spent very little time with Gary, but his humor and likable personality left an impression on me. Gary and I were in the fourth platoon Delta Company “Wolfhounds” in Vietnam. We were infantry and known as “grunts or ground-pounders”. On 24 October 1967 our platoon leader asked for three volunteers to form a killer team. Gary jumped to the task along with another hound and me. Our mission was to flank the platoon at about five hundred meters and move parallel probing suspected enemy positions in an effort to draw them into a firefight. If we engaged the enemy, the platoon would turn and move on line to reinforce the team. Early into the mission we made contact and engaged the bad guys. The three of us picked a fight with a much larger force than expected. The firefight raged on for five hours before it was over and the casualties counted.  During the initial attack all three members of the team were wounded and Gary died as a result of his wounds. I’m very proud to have known and served with Gary. He was a brave young American and a credit to his country and the US ARMY.

Dave Plumley

4th Platoon 27th Infantry

25th Infantry Div. “Wolfhounds”

Below is a picture of 4th Platoon's "hooch" back at Base Camp in ChuChi

Dave Plumley and his friends trying to cool off with a little light refreshment.

That's Dave on the left, Doug, Doc, and Walter (in front).