Major General (R) John Robert "Bert" Spalding Jr.

A top commander in Da nNang Vietnam and very respected by everyone at the base in 1971.

I worked for this fine officer on staff for several years, eventually becoming his aide for a short time. He was an excellent leader and was highly creative and insightful in his solutions to Command problems. He was a keen manager, but a very likeable man. He was gracious, approachable and happy to talk with staff about their work and ideas. It was my privilege to work for him and I hope he had a happy and peaceful retirement. I will never forget him.

While attempting to recover a command vehicle from atop a concrete culvert we had heavy traffic hampering our efforts. someone came from behind me put his hand on my shoulder and said "how can I help Sgt? Without looking up from what I was doing I shouted above the noise: "direct that traffic out of our way" later one of my team points to a silhouetted figure expertly moving traffic along but out of our way. I immediately recognized the figure enthusiasticly providing our traffic control as...

I miss my conversations with him on the phone. I was in the Army during one of my tours in Da Nang, Vietnam. John sent me one of his Gunfighter 366th TFW patches which I have it my trophy case.