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John Leslie Downing
Private First Class
C CO, 43RD SIG BN, 21ST SIG GROUP, 1ST SIGNAL BDE, USARV Army of the United States Phoenix, Arizona January 03, 1949 to May 05, 1968 JOHN L DOWNING is on the Wall at Panel 55E, Line 9 |
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Downing, we didn't like each other very much, did we? We fought like crazy. Remember that night we got drunk and beat on each other outside the Battalion C.O'.s hootch? You wouldn't listen to me about hand grenades in the truck. You had to be John Wayne and I had to play sergeant. As convoy co-drivers went, though, you were never drunk or stoned on the job. I would not have put up with that crap, would I? You were never afraid, either. The day you and Henesy died was your first day behind the wheel because I needed a break. I told the C.O. you weren't ready, that we should wait a day and I would be ready again. I knew something was wrong that day and told the C.O. that. He told me you would be OK. As I watched the hills leaving Kontum and saw the smoke I knew it wasn't going to be OK ever again. Eight guys died that day, cut out of the middle of that convoy where I told you not to be, and you by a grenade, they said. If you had only listened or had I only known how to command. Two days later when I made the run again and saw my old truck and the bodies of all the NVA around it I knew you two didn't go alone. That day in Monterey when I first saw the Traveling Wall I sat frozen fifty feet from it, unable to move, my wife and little girl holding my hands as the tears streamed down my face. I knew I couldn't move those final few steps. My buddy, Wayne (a HUEY crew chief from the 4th Inf Div just down the road from us in Kontum) put his arm around me and we walked those last few feet. God bless and keep you always, John L. Downey, you are forever in my heart.
SP/5 Allan Evans |
A Note from The Virtual WallThe eight soldiers who died in the convoy ambush were
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