11 Jan 2007 In the 1990s, when I was 16 years old, I spent a week with Sergeant Aiken's parents in Whitehall, New York. They served as hosts for a leadership competition for young women. They had a painting of him above their piano and his face was so handsome and full of life. I asked his mother "Who is the handsome man in the picture" and she said that is our son who was killed in Vietnam and she started to cry. Over the course of the next week, she spoke about him many times and every time tears filled her eyes. The pain was still as vivid for her as it was the day she was notified. I didn't fully understand the impact of such a loss on a family until now. The man I love is serving in Iraq. I wish every man who served in Vietnam could be remembered as an individual who was full of life, who was once a mother's adorable little baby, and a father's pride and joy, who sat in classes and pulled girls' pigtails, who had his own hopes and dreams for his future. These men are not just a name on a wall. They were individuals like the rest of us who had full lives ahead of them cut short by a horrible war. Please remember Sergeant Aiken and keep him and his family and all the men and women serving our country in your prayers. From a friend of his parents. E-mail address is not available.

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall On 13 Nov 1970 Delta Company, 2/506th Infantry, lost two men to enemy gunfire - SGT William L. Aiken and SGT Donald L. Valentine of Lafayette, Indiana.

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