In Memory

Don Williamson

Don died serving his country in Vietnam on May 25, 1968.



 
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06/13/16 12:40 PM #6    

Nancy Aland (Rigby)

Steve:  I have also cried at that Vietnam Memorial, particularly after seeing Don"s name. Thanks for sharing.  I visited DaNang and area, trying to get a handle on the area, people, and war. It was a difficult time in the history of our country.  Those of our classmates who served certainly know more than I.  My impression at this time is that it is a beautiful country.


06/13/16 01:36 PM #7    

Lonni Wallace (Swanson)

Love your post(s) Steve. Several years ago I also found Don at the memorial in DC and it really got to me too. He was such a nut. I'm afraid I gave him a bit of a rough time at Skyline.


06/13/16 04:24 PM #8    

Linda L. Nielson (Bayes)

Thank you, Steve!  It's important to share the significant moments of our lives with our grandchildren. In the early 1990's I etched two friends' names, Don Williamson and Frank Nelson, from the Vietnam Memorial wall. I became emotional as my memories of them made my hand quiver. 


06/15/16 12:24 PM #9    

John E. Moreau

Don and Gene Salazar went to USU and lived together in an apartment above a home just off Old Main Hill.  I spent many hours there - consumed more than a little beer and ate a lot of potatoes (all we could afford).  We even did a little studying.  Don was a close friend all thru Jr. High and Skyline.  I can still hear his laugh and see his face.  It is hard to understand  why such losses occur.  He is still missed.


06/17/16 10:08 AM #10    

Brent Erickson

As many of you have expressed, I have also traveled to Washington DC to the Vietnam War Memorial and found Don's name memorialized in the wall. It brought back fun high school memories but also sadness of the war (conflict) years. While I mourn Don's death, I also want to thank all those Eagles who served either in Vietnam or elsewhere in the world in service of our country during those tumultuous years, who returned safely. We know there were many who did not return unharmed physically, mentally or emotionally.

Unfortunately, when our warriors returned from their service they were not always welcomed, praised and honored as they should have been by our collective society at that time. They were drafted or volunteered to serve and deserved so much more than they received.

Thanks to all of you Eagle warriors.

Brent


06/17/16 10:43 AM #11    

Steven R. Ford

Interesting..  thinking back now, we all referred to each other by last name. To go back there we still have to say Jager, Williamson, Littlefield and Ingelby. Some times those outside our grade got pulled in like Bill and Larry DUKE or Doug Clark. Most of us still do when we go back there in our memory. Jessperson looks pretty much the same as she did then. We matured enough to appreciate Rolly's wry sense of the world and humor more than we did then. Leslie Peterson got a first name only bcause we also had Mike to contend with, so they hooked up and then it was really confusing. I moved from sugarhouse to Wasatch in eighth grade and the first week I started laughing with Littlefield and his janitor friend "Mouse" Littlefield's humor was often more slapstick than dry, but it was endless. He made me laugh until at last we graduated. I must have had a class with Don, or it was just that he hung with Littlefield and with Jager. Otherwise living way up there with Paul Head on Crestwood Drive we would not have become friends, that was a very long walk. I remember well Don's great looks and fantastic hair, but the image that first comes into my mind is the "shiner" that Ingelby mentioned. Seemed like it took a month to heal and while half his face was blue the eye was sealed shut. When we traded out bicycles for motorcyles, Vespa's and cars I remember Don driving some red whale that his brother Kem owned while Ingelby had the little turquois Renault and we all wanted to be Salazar's friend when he got the parent's new blue 289 Mustang. For my sixteenth birthday I totalled my beloved 56 Crown Victoria and so it went as we went from "tweens" to quasi adults at Skyline.  Much of who I became as an adult came from Jager and Williamson. They were very cool and I was a fledgling.
I remember well that last year of school, feeling somewhat caught between my friends Jerry Stag and Don Williamson with whom I smoked under "the brigde" and Brent Erickson / Kent Lambert who seemed to always do what the parents would have been proud of.

1967 the draft was everywhere and on all our minds. "How high is your number?" Kem Williamson was drafted, I started fall semester at the U. I was very surprised when I heard from Jager that Williamson had volunteered. It seems like yesterday that we heard the news that brought it home and very close. Ingelby was in Paris, I was in Duesseldorf, we were both hungry. I was saving all my food and rent money to buy a camera, Steve's family could not get any money to France because the postal service was on Strike. In Europe we had the opportunity to compare the news out of Washington against the news out of Vietnam. The stories told by Dutch correspondents and those of Gen. Westmorland often did not seem to be the same stoary at all. The one thing we did know was that our best friend Don was dead. I felt a bit guilty and I had not gone and more angry that Don had.


07/24/16 02:28 AM #12    

Terry Brewer

I knew Don. I can clearly see his face in my mind, just as he was back then, and hear his voice. I was far from being in his circle of friends, but I liked him, especially for his sense of humor. It was a blow to hear of his passing. At the time that I heard about it, I was serving in the military and that made it all the more meaningful.

I have looked over the list of 82 Skyline alumi who have served in the military and, considering the fact that we were right there in the middle of the Viet Nam War and all the wars our military has fought in since that time, I was surprised to find that only two of them were also on the In Memory list, and of those two only Don died from war-related wounds. There is no way to count how many of the other 80 may have suffered injuries ranging from small to severe or how many may, even now, be afflicted with PTSD, but it is obvious that this many Skyline men and women (?) have placed themselves in harms way and returned to tell tales to those they left behind about what it was like.

As for me, I never heard a shot fired in anger, so I can't put myself in the same class as those who have, but I did my duty and like the 81 others, took the risks. We must face it; we have been lucky. I wager there are many high school classes from our time that cannot say the same. I am proud of everyone of those who served; whether they volunteered or were drafted it does not matter. They deserve our honor and respect; and I will never forget Don Williamson.


04/26/21 02:17 PM #13    

Shonnie Stillman (Hays)

Rob Adamson asked to have his tribute to Don Williamson added.

"I grew up in the same neighborhood as Don. We lived near the water tanks above 3300 South.

I recall his best friends were the Taylor kids. We also went to church together. The girls liked him. He was a great kid, friendly and happy.

He was a year behind me in school. I had three other friends from Skyline High that died in combat in Vietnam.  When I go to DC, I visit the Vietnam Wall to see their names. 

Don would have made a terrific Grandpa."

 

 


04/27/21 10:08 AM #14    

Suzan Maughan (Martin)

I still think of him from time to time, he was a really good guy.


04/27/21 12:47 PM #15    

Lance Barr

Bart Carlos and I were stationed in Danang with the Marines when we heard of Don's death.  We were both pretty shocked when we heard.  Especially since we knew he was stationed aboard a ship. I know Don and Bart were very close.  When I got back from Nam my mother and I where shopping at the cottonwood mall when we ran into Don's mother.  It was pretty emmotional for my mother and me.  Don's mom gave me a big hug which started the tears flowing.  I will never fotget that day.

Semper Fi my brother 

Lance


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