For many years now a number of us in the family, myself included, have wondered what happened to Starr during his tour in Vietnam. All I knew was that he was killed, but not by enemy fire. I did not understand this and wondered often over the years. It was not by friendly fire either, which made it somewhat confusing. What he did was never discussed, nor mentioned which made it even more perplexing. Now, many questions are answered for me, and I hope for those of you whom wanted to know. The entire story may never be known, but for now, we do know more.

Recently this was received from a friend of Starr's whom knew and worked with him during the Vietnam war. I have put this email up for our family to read and appreciate what these courageous young men were doing for this country and their families.

Here is the story of what happened to our beloved Starr and of others whom also cared about him. Starr was just 24 when we lost him. May God rest their souls.

My name is Ray and my wife and I live in West Palm Beach Florida. I am a retired Major with the Florida Highway Patrol. Starr was a friend of mine and I was with him the night before his death at our units informal Christmas Party. Starr was crew chief/door gunner for our chopper. Our unit was the 1st Bn Provincial, of the 525th Military Counterintelligence Group headquartered in Danang, Vn. Our unit was highly classified and operated under several cover names at various times, 40th Commo, and 317th Signal. We operated south Vietnamese intelligence operatives from ChuLai to Quang Tri. Starr's chopper piloted by another friend Fred Williams transported these agents for us. The chopper was on a mission south of Danang with Intel ops onboard and one of our ops, David Gilmor, another good friend, when it went down. Starr and Fred were on the same side of the aircraft when it hit. Upon impact it burst into flames. Fred and starr were trapped, along with the SO. The Viet. ops. David, the copilot and the other door gunner were able to get out. David went back into the flames in an effort to save Starr, Fred and the Intel. ops. He was overcome by the flames and was killed also. The copilot and door gunner survived. I have kept in touch with David's father over the years.I have thought of Starr many times over the years. He was a good man and soldier. He gave his life in the most honorable way and I for one have never forgotten him and his friendship. My wife and I went back to Vietnam in May of 2000 to pay tribute to Starr, David and Fred. Please pass this information on to your family and give my warmest regards. If I can answer any questions feel free to
contact me.

Sincerely,
Ray
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Another letter was received from Ray and it follows:

Thank you for the response to my e-mail. It was very nice of you to share some of your family history and invite me to view your web page, and share my thoughts about Starr. You surely have my permission to use my thoughts about Starr.

I have some random thoughts and memories of Starr I'll share: The night before his death we had an informal Christmas party. More of a casual gathering with some luke warm beer and cookies from home. Fred had made friends with some USO entertainers flying in and out of Marble Mountain and had invited them to come over to our compound that night. They did and to our surprise put on a mini show for us. This was special because we were isolated in a compound in downtown Danang and didn't get to many of the USO shows in the area. Everyone had a good time, however, Starr and the chopper crew left early, about 9:00PM because of the early morning mission.

Starr was very dedicated to his chopper. It was his baby and he loved it. Many a night I saw Starr cleaning the M-60 machine guns late at night. He would always say that he had to keep those babies clean because you never know when your going to them.

Starr had an infectious smile. Nothing ever bothered him. On one trip from Quang Tri to Danang, about 100 miles, it was raining so hard the pilot could not see and was flying about 5 feet above the waves of the ocean along the coast so he wouldn't get lost. I really didn't think we would make it. Starr looked over at me
and just said "we'll be OK."

Just a side note, Starr's chopper went by the call sign
of "Moonshine One."

As I remember things I"ll try to pass them on.
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My gratitude to Ray for his willingness to share his memories of Vietnam and Starr with us. I am deeply grateful to him for this and am anxious to hear from him again.

Many of our young men and women died in Vietnam. Most every family in this Country suffered a loss of one kind or another during this war. So let us honor our Vets as they deserve so well and include them in our prayers. Our Starr may be gone from our lives today, but he will remain in the hearts of many of us forever.