Fallen "brother" remembered by those he served with

Vietnam veterans honor a fallen soldier 50 years later

CBS News
By STEVE HARTMAN
July 19, 2019

But like a lot of Vietnam vets, especially, they find it hard to mourn the loss of a fellow soldier, without also mourning their own survival.

Chester, Illinois — At a cemetery in Illinois, Perry Dotson is 50 years late for the funeral of Army Pfc. Leonard Nitzsche. Lt. Dotson was Leonard's platoon leader in Vietnam, when, in April 1970, their group was attacked and Leonard was killed. They loaded his body on a helicopter and immediately, the platoon went back to the war.

"That was the extent of our grieving. And it just hit me one day, I woke up and I thought, 'I never had a chance to say thank you.' Maybe I just needed some finality," Perry said.

When Perry mentioned this pilgrimage to some of the other guys in his platoon, he found out something he hadn't considered before: That he wasn't alone and there were others who felt the exact same way.

So, they came, too. Tim Roland flew in from McAllen, Texas. Ernie Levesque drove out from Springfield, Massachusetts, and Glenn Fox came from Newport, Nebraska. On arrival, they met Leonard's sister, Linda, at the cemetery. Everyone gathered to pay their respects to Leonard.

"That's why this is so important to us today, because we never got to do this when it happened," Glenn said.
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