A Stewardess Remembers Ephriam Rutledge Liles II, KIA Vietnam July 4, 1969

Today would be the 68^th birthday of Warrant Officer Ephriam Rutledge (Rut) Liles II, a pilot who died at age 22 when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam on July 4, 1969.

Despite the passage of 46 years, his name is still fondly remembered by friends in his hometown of Pickens, South Carolina; by his sister in Colorado; and by a stewardess who only met him briefly on his flight to Vietnam.

In Pickens, one of his high school friends, Ben Underwood, established an athletic award in his name, and he is honored with a plaque on a flagpole in a local park. His family donated an organ in remembrance to the local Methodist Church, and one of his cousins has a marker in his honor in a garden at his home.

One of the most poignant memories of Warrant Officer Liles is a message written to a “virtual Wall” in 2002 by a stewardess who only knew him for a few hours. Like thousands of other servicemen, Rut went to Vietnam aboard a chartered airliner operated by the Flying Tiger Line. One of the stewardesses (now called “flight attendants”) on that flight was Joyce Danielsen. She wrote the following remembrance of him in 2002 under the title “I Remember a Young Man.” It’s a bit long for this blog, but well worth the time to read:

“Although I only met and spent a few short hours

with young Rut, I remember him vividly. I was a flight attendant on Flying Tigers taking 219 young men and women into Vietnam and he was on my flight. He was sitting in the front row between identical twin brothers and he had the widest smile.

“Over the years many of the young men would ask us to write to them, but I never did. Some of the flight attendants would write to them, some wrote to several. But they all said the same thing. At some point one or more of their letters would be marked ‘Return to Sender.’ They had perished in the war and their letters were returned. I never wanted this to happen to me.

 “But young Rut was different. He had a boyish personality and a smile that never ceased. We laughed and chatted for hours about family, hopes and dreams. With the identical twins on either side of him they appeared to be the Three Musketeers.

“I took pictures of him and his new friends and said I would send him copies. I wrote to him 14 days later to tell him that as soon as the pictures were developed I would send them to him. I never heard from him. It was weeks later that I received a letter from his father telling me that he has perished in a helicopter crash. He had been given the letter I sent his son and asked if I could send him the pictures I had mentioned. I did and that began a long correspondence with his mother and father.

“Separately, they would write me long letters about their son. They would tell me about young Rut’s accomplishments in high school, his community, and short military service. They would tell not only about his hopes and dreams, but also their hopes and dreams for their young son. They told me of his sister, a schoolteacher, who loved her brother.

“Over the years I have lost contact with the Liles, but I think of them and young Rut often. We must always remember the past and never forget it. There is a saying, ‘Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.’ This has never been truer than now with the occurrence of 9/11.

“When the events of 9/11/01 were unfolding I was visiting my 88-year-old father in his retirement home. As we watched TV and saw the plane fly into the tower and subsequent collapsing, people were horrified. But those it affected the most were those in their seventies, eighties and nineties. They were glued to the TV and wouldn’t budge. They kept saying, ‘This can’t be happening AGAIN!’ They were referring to Pearl Harbor, when they were young like those of today, the only other time that an enemy had attacked us on our own land.

“Thousands of men and women lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, many more than on 9/11. And at that time there was no means of recovering those who sank on the ships so they were forever entombed in the sea.

“Unfortunately, these events and wars remind us that life is unfair and that war is even more unfair and we all suffer the consequences. It seems that whatever we do, we can’t seem to attain world peace. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop our efforts, be they through words or war.”

Warrant Officer Ephriam Rutledge Liles II is buried at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Pickens, South Carolina.