ALAN R SCHULTZ
ALAN R. SCHULTZ Our Supply School class consisted of thirty-five Marines. At the end we were given orders for our next duty station. Fifteen Marines received orders for Philadelphia and the remaining twenty of us were given orders to Vietnam. In addition to Alan, three Marines from my original boot camp Platoon 2027, and myself all agreed after leave we would meet up in San Francisco for a last fling before Vietnam in December of 1966. And there we were in the city by the bay five Marines doing what Marines do when recreating. Alan did everything imaginable during our short two days in San Francisco. Alan had one goal. He was still proving himself. He did not want to be in supply and desired to be in the infantry. When we got to Vietnam the five of us all went our separate ways. In May of 1967 I took a Rest and Recreation leave to Manila, Philippines. Upon my return to Vietnam I spent the night in Danang at a transit facility. And lo and behold who was there but Alan. We swapped stories but Alan was a lot different. He had gotten his wish and had been in the infantry. He showed me his belt which had belonged to a North Vietnamese soldier. Alan was not the funny wise cracking guy I knew previously. He had seen and participated in terrible stuff. We parted ways the next day and that was last time I had seen Alan alive. I learned from a mutual Marine friend that Alan was killed in August of 1967. Here was this brave young man, twenty years old, who should have never been accepted into the Marine Corps given his eyesight and hearing and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Whenever I visit Washington, DC I go to the Vietnam Wall Panel 24 E, row 101 to search for Alan’s name. I also remember him every Memorial Day.
Peter Wilson, SGT USMC |