Photo Of Our Old Battalion Sign In Fort Lewis, Washington

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I took this photo of our old Battalion Sign in Fort Lewis, Washington in 1966 before we shipped out for the RVN. LTCOL Pat W. Crizer was our Battalion Commander from December 1965 - December 1966. He went to the RVN with us and was replaced by LTC Tom "Charger"Lynch in Dec. of 1966. "Charger was replaced by LTC Glen Belnap in early December of 1967.

I still remember LTC Crizer taking an interest in we boys from Scott County and Lee County, Virginia since he was from Wise County, Virginia. I remember him coming to our rifle qualifying and giving us a pep talk to not let him down.

LTC Belnap was killed-in-action along with his SGM Herbert Roberts. They died instantly in a Huey Helicopter crash along with the crew of the chopper on 12/20/67. I believe that if I can get my story straight the Chopper that they were in was Hovering above the trees and all of a sudden its tail Rotor got into the trees thus causing the chopper to crash.