Billy W. Adamson; the guitar-strumming hero
One of you sent me this scan of an article in the Western North Carolina Mountaineer, but I’ll be dipped if I can remember who it was. Sorry.
Apparently they ran the article in the print edition and it never made it to the internet edition. But apparently, it’s about this poor down-trodden fellow who joined the Army during the Vietnam War, became an infantryman, airborne then a Ranger and made Sergeant all before he was 18. Then the Army shipped his studly ass straight to Vietnam on his 18th birthday, February 20, 1969 and he didn’t leave until November 5, 1973 – that’s one long-ass tour, brother. He said he was assigned to the 5th SFG and attached to 173rd. (Sorry you guys from 1st Cav, I guess he didn’t think enough of you to make his story include you).
He goes on about how he was strumming his guitar one night and some sergeant major drafted him into MACV because I guess they were understrength guitar players.
Anyhow he was captured and held as a POW in Laos for three months. he doesn’t say how he became a non-POW. But I guess the Army screwed him for his POW time when he refused to re-enlist and said he’d been AWOL and dishonorably discharged him. Here’s the scan of his story;
Of course, not much of his story jibes with his records. He was a sergeant, but unless Special Forces had artillerymen in those days, I don’t think they had a slot for him;
And there’s no mention of his Ranger School or Airborne School, or Camp Mackall. He did go to Vietnam for a year from Nov ’67- Nov ’68, but he was with an arty unit in the 9th Division and returned to serve at Fort Sill until his discharge in ’69. No assignment to MACV, though.
Why would someone with a service record like that feel a need to lie? He also claimed in the article that the American Legion and POW Network was helping him straighten out his records. POW Network sent me these records, so I guess he won’t get any help there.
I also don’t see any time counted for AWOL or MIA.
Here’s the other half of the scan in case you’re interested;
Category: Phony soldiers
Was he even ever Dishonorably discharged?
Where to start? Never mind, one could drive an M1 through the holes in this story.
If you read the story it appears that his old pal Sgt Maj Colon also served five years in RVN! I’d put money that there exists a Colon and that these two are in collusion to rip off the VA.
And I’d further wager that it’s working!
To my way of thinking, it is even more scummy for a service member who had honorable time to try to play hero and super grunt. The posers and wanna be’s, we can sort of grasp why they do it, but this guy does not have anything to be down about. He went where he was told and did what he was told.
He in particular should be hung out to dry.
Exactly COB6! Glad I’m not alone in thinking that too. Some chit just doesn’t add up, lol.
Everything he says rings of bullshit, from being deserted on the courthouse steps, to hitchhiking to Louisiana at the age of nine, to getting stomped by horses. I would bet he wrote that letter and that this is no SGM Colon. His records states he entered the Army at Bad Kissingen GE while his story makes not mentioned of that and says his father signed for him in Ky. This guy is one big bullshit artist.
Hmm, you’d think he’d have mentioned his old pal the SGM died last year:
http://hughartbeard.com/obits/?p=281
Says the SGM served with 11th Airborne, not the 173rd. Of course, it also says he served in VN with that unit, and my cursory internet research tells me the 11th was deactivated before ever deploying to VN. Probably an error in reporting. Someone might want to get their paws on the SGM’s records, if only for comparison to Adamson’s claims, to make sure he’s not just using the name of someone he knew.
I was in the 101st from 1960 to 1964. While I cannot verify this, but I was told back then that the 11th was de-activated in, I think, 1958, and the personnel became the 101st core of cadre in the “new” Airborne Battle Group concept. As best I know, the 11th is not, was not, has not been active since at least, 1960. We sure had a lot of 11th ABN right shoulder patches in our rifle company.
*thumbs up* Frankly!
This does sound like a lot of malarkey. As for the 11th, my dad was in the 11th Air Assault Division during the airmobile test period and when they re-flagged to the 1st Cav and then went to Vietnam with them. I have his old class A uniforms in a closet across the hall with the 11th Air Assault Div patch on them still. Dad went to RVN around August 1965 and came home in Jan 66. One of the uniforms has no left shoulder patch and his 1st Cav patch on the right shoulder. I guess he just moved it over.
Here’s what I don’t get, You’re a Red Leg, you went and did your time. Maybe you don’t have the greatest war stories but YOU DID YOUR JOB. Why lie?
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