180 ‘symbols of gratitude’ placed at National Infantry Museum to honor veterans

Audrey Aikey Earnest has only two memories of her older brother, Timothy Wayne Aikey.

One was when Aikey, a sergeant serving the A Company, 2nd Battalion in the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army, came home to Williamsport, Penn. on leave.

He took her to the general store for a bag of penny candy.

The second memory is of him in his coffin.

Aikey died in combat on Jan. 2, 1966 at the age of 19 in Vietnam. He was the oldest of eight; his little sister Audrey was six.

Aikey was one of 180 soldiers who were honored on Monday at Fort Benning during the National Infantry Museum’s Memorial Day paver dedication ceremony.

Colonel Anthony G. Judge, the guest speaker, addressed family, friends and community members who gathered at 10 a.m. in the heart of the museum.

Judge recounted the heroic acts of Aikey and others whose names are now enshrined with 6,300 other soldiers on engraved stone pavers that line the sidewalk at the museum.

He called the pavers “symbols of gratitude.”

“In my view, today, Memorial Day, is one of the most significant days of the year,” Judge said. “Unfortunately, it seems that to some, this day has lost its true meaning. Memorial Day is not just about backyard barbeques, going to the beach, the latest holiday sale or the unofficial start of the summer; as you know, it has far deeper meaning.

“Memorial Day symbolizes what America stands for; it highlights what is truly important, things like selfless service, honor, courage and sacrifice for something that is greater than ourselves.”

Judge urged the crowd to continue to remember the true purpose of Memorial Day and to take time to talk about veterans, visit their graves and their loved ones, and to fly the American flag high.

And he spoke about the significance of Timothy Aikey’s sacrifice.

“Growing up, Tim, like most boys, loved to play baseball, Monopoly, played war with his friends, and loved to play his guitar on the front porch for his neighbors,” Judge said. “Like many of us, his favorite food was spaghetti, and he loved ice cream.”

Judge said Aikey recognized the importance of family, and loved his siblings and his mother.

“(Aikey) dropped out of school to join the army when he was only 17,” Judge said. “Tim was the first patriot from Lycoming County, Penn. to be killed in Vietnam. He died in the early morning hours of January 2, while serving as a machine gunner. He will never be forgotten by his family and by his fellow paratroopers.”

In the audience were two people who will make sure that Aikey’s sacrifice for his nation and his fellow comrades will be remembered: Audrey Earnest and James Dotson.

Dotson, 78, served alongside Aikey in the same platoon during the Vietnam War in 1965 and 1966. The two were close friends.

After the ceremony, Dotson, who lives in Harlem, Ga., said that he remembered the Christmas of 1965 as a quiet one, during which boys got care packages from back home, ate steak and drank beer, and the war seemed to pause.

On the second day of January 1966, it was back to business, Dotson said.

“Tim got killed very early in the morning,” Dotson said. “I wasn’t with him. It’s been 50 years plus, and I think about Tim probably every day.”

Earnest started attending annual reunions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade about 15 years ago, and eventually met Dotson.

“She was online looking for anyone who might know her brother Timothy, and that’s how we connected,” Dotson said.

“I was really little when my brother was killed, so I don’t have many memories, but after meeting these guys from the 173rd, I’ve learned a lot about him,” Earnest said. “I lost a brother, but I gained a family...there is such a camaraderie of these guys. There will never be another group like them.”

“She calls me ‘brother,’” Dotson said.

Dotson retired at Fort Gordon in 1985 and worked at the Savannah River Site until 2004.

He purchased a paver in Aikey’s honor and had one placed for himself, as well.

Aikey and Dotson’s pavers were placed side by side.

In addition to Aikey and Dotson, other soldiers highlighted during the ceremony were:

• First Lieutenant Weston C. Lee, of Bluffton, Ga., who was an infantry officer assigned to 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. He died at the age of 25 on April 29, 2017 in Mosul, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated during a patrol. He was deployed to Iraq in December 2016; it was his first deployment.
• Captain Russell B. Rippetoe, a fire support officer from Colorado, who was commissioned into the Army as a Field Artillery officer on Aug. 9, 1999. He was assigned to A Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Benning in 2002. He died in Afghanistan on April 3, 2003 in a suicide car-bomb attack while coming to the aid of a pregnant woman standing next to the car. He was 27.
• Colonel Donald Appler, a 1965 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, who served two combat tours in Vietnam, both with the 3rd Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry in the 25th Infantry Division. He retired from the Army as the deputy assistant commandant, U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Knox.
• Marine Lance Corporal Ron Charles, of Akron, Ohio, who was sent to Vietnam along with his best friend from childhood, Herman Downs. Charles was killed in action in Vietnam in June 1967. He died having never met his son, and Downs eventually married Charles’ girlfriend and became a father to his son.

This story was originally published May 27, 2019 at 2:54 PM.