Found him.
Viet Vets have a much higher rate of heart disease than the general population, which after a considerable study, added a certain heart disease to the Agent Orange disease list. Betcha the poor guy had AO contact. 65 is way to young to sign off.
RIP.
Harold Thomas, pictured standing far left, went by the nickname 'Louisiana' because of his southern drawl he was never able to shake even after living in California for 58 years. A group of fellow veterans were hoping to located him and their search went global. (Photo courtesy of Susan Waldrop Garvin).
It’s never too late to say “Welcome home”
There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland, he was from Detroit; and Tex... well, I don’t remember where Tex come from.
Just about a month ago, I started looking up some of the guys I went to school with, and others who I was in the Army with. I found that several of them had already died. They were all in their 50’s and 60’s when they died. Of course, most of them I couldn’t find out anything about, most because of their names were pretty common.
Sad, but he made it back.
Maybe 6 years later I received an email from a guy identifying the motorcycle I had while I was there and it turned he was a friend who I shared an apartment with along with two other guys and their motorcycles until I was transferred to Ft. Clayton.........
We corresponded on and off for many years, the more we talked, the more memories surfaced.
My last email to him was maybe 4 years ago and he never responded, but that was expected. A year later I sent another email which he never responded to so I used the internet to look him up.
As it turns out, all I found was his obituary and that he had died from cancer about 5 months after the first non answered email.............
All those years I had hopes of visiting him in NJ, where he lived, but never did.............
As for the other pal we roomed with, Bill said he had died around 2000 and all attempts to contact his ex-wife were completely ignored............
Another close friend I served with who was from Wisconsin, I found he had died in 2010..........
The internet is good, if you have past military friends that you never saw again after leaving the service, try to look them up. It will do your heart good........but it may break too.
Where is 'Louisiana'? Vietnam war buddies launch appeal to help them reunite with their comrade