Posted on 08/08/2004 2:27:51 AM PDT by csvset
Army unit gives medic’s brother overdue salute
By JACK DORSEY , The Virginian-Pilot
© August 6, 2004
Last updated: 1:21 AM
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| Retired Chief Warrant Officer Frederic Behrens, left, meets German air force Sgt. Maj. Bruno Speer, more than 30 years after Speer’s brother, U.S. Army Sgt. Robert Fritz Speer (photo below) saved Behrens’ life during the Vietnam War. sTephen M. Katz/the virginian-pilot
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 Robert Fritz Speer
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He had been looking for the family, split by divorce and living between Texas and Germany, ever since that day in Vietnam.
Sgt. Robert Fritz Speer, of Dallas, died April 24, 1971, as part of an air ambulance platoon trying to evacuate wounded from the rugged A Shau Valley.
Behrens was flying their helicopter as the five-man squad rescued the crew of another downed helicopter, but then his chopper was shot down as well. One member died in the second crash. Others were wounded.
“I already had been shot four times in the leg, unable to do anything, but Fritz worked his way down to get the two pilots out, then returned to me,” Behrens, of Powhatan County, said at the 101st Airborne’s 59th reunion, held this week at the Holiday Inn-Hampton Coliseum.
Speer, who was 22, moved the wounded to a safer defensive position, treating those around him throughout the night and into the next day while they waited for other Rangers to save them.
Behrens was then shot again, in the foot, by friendly fire.
When Speer went to his aid, a sniper shot the medic in the chest, killing him instantly.
Behrens located the sniper and took him out.
Ever since, following his medical retirement from the Army after a year in the hospital and all through his long-term work with the 101st Airborne Association, Behrens has tried to find Speer’s family.
Speer was born in Germany but was reared in Dallas by his mother after his parents divorced. His other brothers remained in Germany with the father.
One brother, German air force Sgt. Maj. Bruno Speer, of Wiesbaden, younger by five years, had been looking for information too. He learned of his brother’s death six months after the fact. He could find out little more. Their mother had died, and by the 1980s, so had their father.
“But a year ago, I went on the Internet with a message on the Vietnam War Memorial and was able to locate Frederic. We have been in communications since,” Speer said. Behrens is now president of the Hampton Roads chapter of the 101st Airborne Association, and at the ceremony Thursday, the 101st surprised Speer by presenting him with his brother’s burial flag.
It is because of Fritz Speer’s “selflessness and his fellow medics, we do not have more names on that somber Vietnam memorial wall,” U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott said as he presented the flag to Bruno Speer.
“And it is with gratitude to … Speer and other medics like him that some of your are here today,” he told the 101st Airborne veterans.
For Bruno Speer, who has since gathered his brother’s medals – the Distinguished Flying Cross (second Oak Leaf Cluster) with “V” device for heroism; a Bronze Star Medal with “V” for heroism with first Oak Leaf Cluster; an Air Medal (second through fourth awards); a Purple Heart and a Combat Medical Badge – there is a special place for the American flag as well.
“I have a room in my home where I have put them, and this flag will go there,” he said.
“This is so wonderful. It touches my heart every time.”
Reach Jack Dorsey at 446-2284 or jack.dorsey@pilotonline.com
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