Crawford-Cleveland County ArArchives News.....Arkansan, With One Brother Dead, Took Fatal 2d Tour - 4 GI Brothers, Now There Are 2 - Nixon, William Dale & Nixon, Samuel Ray May 1968
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
G. Wayne Nixon gwn71667@yahoo.com April 16, 2011, 7:45 pm

"The Pine Bluff Commercial" May 1968
Pine Bluff, Jefferson Co., Arkansas

pub. sometime between May 8-24, 1968

Arkansan, With One Brother Dead, Took Fatal 2d Tour

4 GI Brothers, Now There Are 2

Dyer (AP) - "I said, Dale, be careful."  Those were the last words that Mrs. S. 
J. Nixon of this little West Arkansas community said to her son before he left 
for a second tour in South Vietnam.

She said her son, Captain William Dale Nixon, 28, told her: "Mother, don't 
worry about me.  I am going back so Jerry won't have to go."

Less than three weeks later, Dale Nixon, a helicopter pilot, was cut down by 
automatic-weapons fire in South Vietnam while he was on the ground.

When he and his mother last talked, Dale had come home to escort the body of 
his brother, Staff Sergeant Samuel Nixon, who had been killed less that two 
months earlier in the year.

Mr. and Mrs. Nixon have eight other children, two other boys are in the Army.

"There's a lot of things I remember about them," Mrs. Nixon said.  "I don't 
think anyone has any finer sons.  They never gave us any trouble."

Samuel Nixon last visited his parents last December.  "I also told him to be 
careful before he left." Mrs. Nixon said.  "He said, 'Mom, I'll be careful, I 
have too much to come back to not to be careful.'"

One of her other sons, Sergeant Ronald Nixon, 23, has served one year in 
Vietnam and her other son, Private Jerry Nixon, 19, has just completed basic 
training and is now stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

"I couldn't keep the other two from going, but I hope they (Ronald and Jerry) 
don't have to go." Mrs. Nixon said.  "I don't know if I could stand to see one 
of them have to go back or not, but if they do . . ."

Mrs. Nixon would not say whether she had any regrets about her sons' being in 
the service.

"I felt like I tried to raise my children so when they became old enough, they 
would know how to make decisions," she said Dale and Samuel both had planned to 
make careers in the service, but she doubted that her other two sons would.

Both Dale and Samuel graduated from Mulberry High School, where both 
participated in track.  Mrs. Nixon said Samuel had won several trophies in 
track competition.

Funeral services are pending the arrival of Dale's body, but Edwards Funeral 
Home at Fort Smith will handle the arrangements.  Burial will be in National 
Cemetery.

Additional Comments:

This is a article printed in the Pine Bluff Commercial about my first cousins 
killed in Viet Nam. Not sure when it was published, but they were killed in 
March and May 1968.

They were the sons of Samuel Jackson Nixon and Laura Bell Gardner.


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