Welcome,
My name is Bob Towers. I arrived in Vietnam at 6:56 AM on 12 July 68. After several days at the replacement center, I was assigned to A Troop 1st Platoon, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry. I was in the field with 1st Platoon from July through Dec 68 and served under 1LT Gillespie, who was KHA (killed hostile action) on 11 Aug 68, and then under 1LT Bills. We worked our AO (area of operation) from Di An to Lai Khe, Quan Loi, Loc Nihn, An Loc, the Michelin Rubber Plantation, up to Song Be and everywhere in between.
In late Dec 68, I accepted an offer to get out of the field and go back to our base camp in Di An as the new CO's driver. I would be responsible for driving the CO around the base camp to meetings, maintaining his Jeep, and taking care of any errands he needed done. Little did I know that the new CO would want to spend more time in the field than driving around base camp. The next eight months of my tour were exciting and interesting. We were always flying over the areas where enemy contact had just been made and I had the opportunity to go places, meet people and see things that otherwise wouldn't have been available to me.
LTC William C. Haponski became CO of 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry on 5 Jan 69. He was very enthusiastic about his position as CO, and wanted to do as much as he could for the people of Di An, and also those within our AO. He worked closely with Major Chau, the District Chief of Di An District, to improve communication systems and to increase security in the local villages.
On Wednesday, October 18, 2000, after 31 years, I received a call at home from LTC Haponski. He told me what he had been doing and about his new project of gathering information, pictures and personal stories from the men who had been with the squadron during the time period of 1968-1969. After that call, I began to gather the materials and pictures of my tour that I had stored in the attic for all this time.
The pictures and information on this website are here for use in LTC Haponski's project if needed, and also for general use by anyone having interest in accessing them. When I took these pictures, I thought that I could never forget the names of the men that I had served with, so I never wrote down all of the names on the pictures. I hope you can remember some of their names, and help me fill in the blanks.
I presently live in Burlington, MA with my wife, Jan. We have three children - Kristin, Matthew and Michael. Kristin, who has recently married, lives in California and is doing very well selling Mercedes-Benz. Matthew graduated from Boston University in May of 2000 and is working as an Occupational Therapist at a local rehabilitation hospital. Michael is currently employed by the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier. It was Michael's idea to build this website for me and I think he did an excellent job - Thanks Mike.
For the past twenty-five years I've been a Mechanical Designer at the General Electric Aircraft Engine facility in Lynn, MA where we design, manufacture, and assemble military aircraft engines. With any luck, I'll be able to retire from GE in a few years.
Thank you for visiting my website. Please sign the guest book and include any questions or comments you may have. You may also e-mail me at: quartercav@hotmail.com.
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