<p>
<em>Donald Homer Dwiggins, Jr</em>., was born in Durham, NC, to parents who had been high school sweethearts. Together with his older sister Judith, they nurtured and loved each other and were deeply aware of the freedoms they enjoyed as Americans. Don worked two jobs during high school to help his family, and, ultimately, he bought and maintained a 1946 Ford. After failing to enter West Point immediately after high school, Don enrolled as a nuclear physics major at North Carolina State University. His efforts paid dividens when he received an appointment and earned math validation. Don flourished as a cadet, teaching Sunday School and serving as a Hop manager.</p>
<p>
Don and Lynn had known each other since grammar school but did not meet again, nor date, until he left for West Point. After Don’s Yearling Year, she moved to Highland Falls. Classmate Rob Herb and his wife Judy describe Lynn and Don as very special people. Judy stayed in Lynn’s apartment several times while Don and Rob were cadets. Both couples married soon after graduation and traveled together to Kitzingen, Germany, for their first duty assignment. The last package Don sent from Viet Nam was a charm of praying hands for his one-month old goddaughter, the Herbs’ first child.</p>
<p>
Classmate Dan Jinks recalled, "Don cared deeply about three things—Lynn, North Carolina, and becoming an Armor officer. When he talked about Lynn or North Carolina, his face seemed to light up. He was extremely pleased to receive his branch choice and he talked about Armor as though it was the "one, true" combat arm. During Recondo at Camp Buckner and Ranger School, we were often miserable. Despite his own exhaustion and weariness, though, Don encouraged others. Physically, we had a lot of trouble on forced marches or training runs, but he always would help others in distress by carrying their equipment, keeping their spirits up, and providing a word of encouragement."</p>
<p>
After arriving in Viet Nam, Don was a battalion S-3 air and S-5 before commanding a company. There was only one tank company in the 25th Infantry Division—A Company, 2d Battalion, 34th Armor. He waited for his command, patiently but not passively. He received the Soldiers Medal for saving a man in his battalion and protecting a disabled armored personnel carrier under enemy fire. As he flew overhead, he used the helicopter’s mini-gun to suppress enemy fire, saving the surviving crew from capture and death. Sadly, Don learned later that his classmate, CPT Gary Carlson, had died during the attack.</p>
<p>
Don and Lynn were in Hawaii for rest and relaxation three weeks before he was killed. On 29 Oct 1969, Don wrote his parents, "I have my company now, and I guess I’m as happy as I could possibly be in Viet Nam. Everything went wrong the first two days, but for the last 30 minutes and 15 seconds everything has been running smoothly!" Nine days later, Don received fatal wounds. CSM James Craft recalled, "CPT Dwiggins was a refreshing change because he cared more about the welfare of his soldiers than the previous commander. We were on a mission at the base of Nui Ba Den Mountain when one of CPT Dwiggins’ tanks hit a land mind. CPT Dwiggins jumped off his armored personnel carrier to see if any of his men had been injured. At that moment, his own APC struck a mine."</p>
<p>
Upon the return of his body to the U.S., the 2-34th dedicated a memorial to Don at Ft. Riley, KS. On 5 Dec 1969, the Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of the Board of WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC, presented the following: "lOApr 1963, the U.S. Atomic submarine, <em>The Thresher,</em> sank in the North Atlantic, carrying the entire crew of 129. Two years later, a handsome young cadet at the U.S. Military Academy sat down and began to write, A schoolmate of mine was lost with <em>The Thresher.</em> If he could speak to me now, he would ask me to see that nothing happened to his family and friends... he was defending when he died...’</p>
<p>
" A defender of freedom’ he wrote that evening, ‘loves peace (as much as) any other man. It is because we love peace and freedom that we prepare to fight, to do whatever is necessary. And when we can no longer fight, others will hear the whispers of our ghosts and they, too, will become defenders of freedom.’</p>
<p>
"The thoughts set down that October evening of 1965 by the West Point cadet found their way to the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, and the following year he was presented their award in recognition of his spirit of devotion to America. One month ago, this young cadet died of wounds in Viet Nam, CPT Donald H. Dwiggins, Jr., 25 years of age, no longer fights for freedom. But he is a guiding spirit, a symbol of why freedom must endure, and why it must be preserved. We visited briefly one recent morning with his mother, a gallant lady with heartbreak heavy upon her. Hers has been an agonizing loss, but she has proud memories of a son who unhesitatingly did his duty with the kind of unselfish courage that made America great. Many mothers these days have less than she to be thankful for.</p>
<p>
"CPT Dwiggins’ personal effects had been shipped home from Viet Nam, and a notebook described his concept of duty. All around him, he had seen death come to young men who were in Viet Nam in defense of their nation. ‘Many serve,’ he wrote, ‘and some die. It is for these men that I now write. We were born in freedom; we have a debt to our children, and to our children’s children, to see that they are permitted to live in freedom.’</p>
<p>
"One can imagine CPT Dwiggins, sitting amidst peril in Viet Nam, reaching for the words to measure the meaning of being free. He would not, he wrote, ‘trade his short 20 or 25 years in a free society for a hundred years or more in an oppressed society.’</p>
<p>
"On the very last page, one senses he heard the news of demonstrations and moratoriums back home. The unfinished sentenceread, ‘It seems very strange that...’ and always those were the last words he wrote—and they possessed a haunting eloquence. The next morning, CPT Dwiggins’ young life ended as a land mind exploded near an obscure village in faraway Viet Nam."</p>
<p>
The newsman who personalized the sacrifice of our friend and classmate was Mr. Jesse Helms, who became a U.S. senator.</p>