I found this on the Kingsport Times newspaper site. Looks like someone is trying to say the 119th Assault Helicopter Company. Anyway, an interesting read.
Salute
BT

My brother, Johnny Vicars, has a letter that he believes is the last letter ever written by one of his best buddies who was killed in Vietnam .

He would like to give the letter to his sister, Faye Etta Carter, but has been unsuccessful in locating her.

According to the Property Data information, she still owns the old home place on Kaywood Avenue in Mount Carmel.

That is as far as I can get.

My brother and 5 or 6 other teenage boys were either drafted into the Army in 1966-67 to serve in Vietnam.

Gary Carter, who was a neighborhood buddy of Johnnys, joined the Marines instead, and ended up in the 1st Marine Division, AMTRAC, Hue.

Johnny was drafted and sent to Ft. Campbell, KY for basic training and another neighborhood buddy, Benny Cole, just happened to be there with him.

As a matter of fact, you published a newspaper article about troops preparing to go to war in Vietnam. When I picked up that Sunday edition, low and behold, there was a picture of Johnny and his other best buddy, Benny Cole, as big as life, in basic training at Ft. Campbell, both holding a weapon over their head in basic training.

Then they went off to war and a different world than what these country boys were use to, as I am sure a lot of others did too. But it was their patriotic duty and they stepped up to the plate and went heroically.

Soon word began to trickle back home about the fatalities and it seemed like we were reading too many obituaries of boys in our neighborhood.

We were watching what little news we were privy to, hoping for a glimpse of a recognizable face underneath all the helmet and camouflage, or to glimpse the place where we could only hope our troops and loved ones were safe, if there is such a place in a war zone.

My brother was in the 119th Helicopter Assault Division, in Plieku. Benny and Gary and Johnny corresponded as much as they could. My brother and Benny survived.

Johnny was home on leave on March 25, 1968, and word came to Gary Carter's family that he had been killed in action in Hue, Vietnam.

Unbeknownst to my brother, he would receive a letter from Gary that was postmarked 2 days before his death. Therein lies my brother's quest, to see if Gary's sister, Faye, would like to have the last letter her brother ever wrote.

Do you have any suggestions or resources available to have a happy ending to such a tragic and heroic time in our lives?