Cecil F. Dixon: He Didn't Have to Be There That Day

Today (November 13, 2018) would have been the 80th birthday of SP5 Cecil F. Dixon, who was killed in an explosion while on a mine sweeping operation in Vietnam July 4, 1967.

A 28-year-old career soldier, Dixon had been in the Army eight years when he arrived in Vietnam in early May 1967. After a couple of months in a relatively safe location he and six other members of the 137^th Engineer Company were sent to set up a rock-crushing machine in Duc Pho.

Dixon had a wife and two sons back home in Trenton, New Jersey. As recounted in a Trenton newspaper article published on Memorial Day 2007, Dixon was extremely homesick and bored in the first days of his new assignment. To escape the boredom he asked if he could go along on a mine sweeping mission.

His buddies said they thought Cecil was crazy for volunteering, not because they felt the mission was dangerous, but because it involved walking four miles up a dirt road. The platoon leader of the operation, First Lieutenant Jim Shamblen, recalls that the fatal explosion cleanly severed Dixon’s right hand and left a small wound in his chest. Shrapnel hit his heart, and he was dead in a matter of minutes

Dixon’s wife, Emily, said in the news article that Cecil didn’t say much about the war in his letters home, he just told her how much he missed his family. Emily passed away at age 72 in 2011.

One of his comrades, Victor DiMartini, said “Everybody liked Cecil, he was a nice guy.” Another said Dixon was the first death in their unit and “our company took it very hard.”

Cecil F. Dixon is buried at the Beverly National Cemetery in Trenton, New Jersey.

Born on Veterans Day; Died in Vietnam on the Fourth of July

PFC Thomas W. Johnson

This Veterans Day would have been the 69th birthday of Army PFC Thomas W. Johnson of London, Ohio. He was killed in action in Vietnam on July 4, 1969, four months shy of his 20th birthday.

His sister, Janie, wrote these words on his page of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund virtual wall: "To my brother...my hero...Tom, you are always in my thoughts and prayers. Although I was a child when you died, there has not been a day go by that I have not thought of you and what our lives would be like today if you were still here with us."

If we don't honor and remember, who will??

1968: Remembering those who died in the deadliest year of the war

On this Fourth of July, let’s pause to honor 42 American who gave their lives in the service of our country in Vietnam 50 years ago today.

The year 1968 was the deadliest year for Americans in the Vietnam war, with 16,899 servicemen killed during the year, an average of 46 a day. The Fourth of July that year was a typical day, with 42 men dying. The 16,899 who died in 1968 were 29% of all those killed in the war. For perspective, about about 11,000 died in each year of 1967 and 1969.

The 42 men who died on July 4, 1968, came from 23 different states, and they ranged in age from 18 to 32 and in rank from Private to Major. They are: