Casualty Occurrence: This soldier was killed when the chopper he was a crewmember on crashed in Kontum Province. The cause of the crash was due to bad weather.

GARY E WILSON, 57TH AHC DOORGUNNER, KONTUM RVN-68/69. I am happy to say Jerry was a friend. His job was helicopter mechanic, but he loved flying . We traveled to Kontum together in April 69. Whenever he had the chance, he'd volunteer for a door gunners' seat. On the night of his death, we ( 4 choppers) spent the day helping a SF team near Dak To. We were unable to get the team out due to bad weather in the mountains, so we sat at Dak To until night fall. The mission was scrubbed, so the crew of the 4 ships got together and we decided to fly back to Kontum. Jerry was on the 4th ship and I was on the 3rd. In flight we ran into really heavy rain and very low visibility. Due to very bad weather conditions, we had to come in with the help of radar. After landing in Kontum, radar reported only three ships came through the pass. The CO came out, jumped on my chopper, we went back on the other side of the mountain. Jerry's ship had crashed with 4 souls lost I was very happy to see his face again.

MY BROTHER'S THEOLOGY: Jerry was my brother and my friend. He was proud to serve our great country and die for the freedom of all people. Yet, he will always live...in my heart, in my mind, in my thoughts, and in my freedom. So many things about Jerry, a mere youth of 18 when he was killed in Viet Nam, are significant to me and are worthy to be re-told here but the most important is regarding our discussions of a Supreme Being or God. As children of eight or ten years of age we often discussed the concept of God. I confessing that I adamantly believed in the existence of God and Jesus and Jerry (choosing to play devil's advocate and having learned a new word) claimed to be an agnostic. He would not deny the existence of God but would not admit to it either saying "prove it to me". He left home with this attitude of agnosticism and "prove it to me". All through basic training and AIT he remained an agnostic; even prior to departing for Viet Nam he still claimed to be an agnostic. However, after eight weeks of war I received a letter from Jerry telling me there really was a God and that he now knew it to be true. He did not say nor do I believe, anyone converted him or witnessed to him or that it was necessary to do so. I believe he saw life and death, beauty and horror, honor and disrespect and in his heart he recognized the full existence of God as only one can who lived to see one more sunrise, one more sunset in the atrocities of war. Jerry, you were a wonderful brother and I love you. Brenda Gayle Dees Patton

Dees, Jerry Richard, PFC