<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<p><em>Billy Wayne Flynn</em> was born in Greensboro, NC, the only child of Sanky and Margaret Flynn. He was raised in Greensboro and attended local schools. Billy was a good student, but his ambition to be a soldier caused him to leave high school after two years and enlist in the United States Army.</p>
<p>Billy did well in basic training and advanced infantry training and volunteered for parachute school so he could become qualified for assignment to an airborne infantry unit. Billy enjoyed parachuting, but his comparatively small stature made him descend a little slower than some of his larger comrades. They joked that he should be made to jump with a heavy machine gun to get down quicker. Billy completed his airborne training and received his jump wings, which he wore proudly.</p>
<p>At this point in his career, Billy’s ambition expanded from being an infantry soldier to becoming an infantry officer. He applied to and was accepted by the United States Military Academy Preparatory School, which prepared enlisted soldiers to qualify academically for admission to West Point. Billy put forth great effort to earn his GED while at the Prep School and was admitted to West Point with the Class of 1966. He was one of a very few men to enter West Point without having graduated from high school.</p>
<p>During his plebe year, Billy was happy to share his prior service skills with his classmates in Company L-1. He mentored in shoe and brass shining and uniform care. Billy displayed a cheerful competence that marked his character throughout his cadet career. He was always willing to drop whatever he was doing to join in solving someone’s problem or just to share his observations on the events of the day.</p>
<p>Billy enjoyed several extracurricular activities while a cadet. He was on the Hop Committee, which planned and staged Academy dances and social events. He pursued his love of parachuting as a member of the Skydiving Club and was an active member of the Military Affairs Club and the Howitzer yearbook staff. Billy carefully balanced his many activities with a weather eye on necessary academic requirements and would quickly seek help from professors and classmates if he encountered difficulty with a subject. He also mastered the art of grabbing the essential 40 winks when opportunity presented, so as to be “ready for duty when it calls.”</p>
<p>Billy was in Company F-3 for his senior year, after the Corps of Cadets was reorganized from two regiments to four. He continued to pursue his goal of becoming an infantry leader and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in that branch upon his graduation from USMA on June 8, 1966. His most prized graduation gift was a Bible from his family.</p>
<p> After summer leave and Ranger School, Second Lieutenant Flynn reported to duty with the 3rd Battalion of the 39th Infantry Regiment (the “Old Reliables”), 9th Infantry Division, which was preparing for movement to Vietnam. He was chosen to be part of the division advance party for the deployment and reached Vietnam on December 18, 1966. Billy was sent to the 1st Infantry Division to get in-country combat experience to share with his own unit when it arrived from the States. He did this for several weeks, until the main body of the 9th arrived.</p>
<p>Billy was serving as a platoon leader with C Company, 3-39th, on January 23, 1967. His men were mounted on armored personnel carriers, clearing an area near Bear Cat, Bien Hoa Province, of enemy troops. The company encountered land mines and heavy small arms fire. The company commander was shot by a sniper. Billy quickly assumed command of the company and moved about the area organizing a defensive perimeter preparatory to a counterattack. He continued to do this until he was killed by enemy fire. For his actions on that day, Second Lieutenant Billy W. Flynn was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal (valor) and the Purple Heart Medal. His other service awards included the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, and Ranger Tab.</p>
<p>Six of Billy’s USMA classmates attended his funeral near his North Carolina home. They were all awaiting orders for Vietnam. As they folded the flag over Billy’s casket, one recalled:</p>
<p>I was one of 98 volunteers of the class who opted for Vietnam as a first assignment after graduation. I was required to spend six months in a stateside unit after airborne/Ranger training before I went. Ironically, Billy was not one of the 98; however, his unit (9th ID) deployed first, and he went with it. He beat me to Vietnam.</p>
<p>Billy was the first member of the Class of 1966 killed in Vietnam. He died two days after his 24th birthday and barely seven months since his graduation from West Point. Almost all of Billy’s classmates would eventually serve there, and 32 died from wounds received there.</p>
<p>Billy fell doing what he had trained for and what duty demanded…leading men in combat at his country’s request. Billy’s class ring is on display at the West Point Library, and the Bible he received on his graduation day is now a cherished item of remembrance with his family.</p>
<p><em>— Flynn family and classmates</em></p>
</body>
</html>