In the early 60s I worked for Junior Craig’s Grocery Stores, first in Hoxie and later Walnut Ridge and Swifton, Arkansas. One of the many young people I worked with was a very outgoing and hardworking young man named Billy Joe Williams. We worked long hours many times all day and late into the night but the thing that stood out about Billy Joe was his always robust attitude. When the new Big Star was built in Walnut Ridge, where the Family Dollar Store is located now, Billy Joe started working there and to hear him tell it was a great place to work. One day he came by where I worked and said that he was joining the Marines and that he had already convinced his boss that I was the person he needed to hire and all I had to do was show up and ask for the job, typical Billy Joe, I did show up and I got the job.
I saw Billy Joe one more time after that when he came home proudly wearing his Marine uniform. Tragically it was about a month later maybe two that I read in the TD that Billy Joe had been killed in Vietnam. I attended his funeral and burial at Oak Forrest Cemetery at Black Rock, Arkansas.
Time has a way of passing and dulling some memories but I always thought of Billy Joe when I made my round of calls on Veterans Day to say thanks or when I put the flag out for those special occasions. In the early 90s I purchased my first computer and started what has become a very large and time consuming family genealogy research. Many times I made rudimentary efforts to locate information about Billy but had little success. I did find his name on the Veterans Memorial in front of the Lawrence County Court House proving that he was not completely forgotten. I even visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Moving Wall http://www.themovingwall.org/ in 1998 when it visited Ft. Collins, Co. but was not able to locate him. I did find someone with the same name but wrong rank, birth date and one from the wrong state and different spelling of the first name.
Last week I decided to make one more attempt and I started with the Billy Joe, spelled Billie Joe Williams listed in Kansas City, Kansas and slowly the fog lifted and I remembered his saying he had family there. I checked the cemetery listing at Nancy's Lawrence County Corner http://geocities.com/nlmatthews@sbcglobal.net/cemetery.htm and Billie Joe Williams listed with the home town of Kansas City, Kansas had the same date of birth and death as the one I knew, I found him. I then did a little research and found accounts of the day he gave his life so tragically on March 21, 1966 in what the Marine Corp called 'Operation Texas' near the village of Phuong Dinh , Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam.
I for one have never forgot the Billie and the sacrifice he gave. The price he paid was high, I hope and pray that it was worth it.
News paper story Operation Texas http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19660325&id=r5AKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O0wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4183,3360472
Vietnam War
In March 1966 the battalion took part in Operation Texas. On March 18, 1966 an ARVN outpost on Hill 141 west of Quang Ngai City was overrun by the 36th North Vietnamese Regiment. A reaction/relief force was promptly put together consisting of elements from 4 Marine battalions including 3/7 and an ARVN battalion. The allied forces were inserted by ground and air on 20 and 21 March and began closing around the NVA forces. Over the next four days, "Operation Texas" claimed a total of 623 known enemy dead, but at least 57 US Marines and sailors were killed in a series of bitter fights.
http://www.0311marine.com/
Operation Texas landing zone, where Billie Joe Williams was killed on 21 March 1966
http://www.0311marine.com/images/Texas_LZa.JPG
No comments:
Post a Comment