There are two days in the life of a 9-year-old that she will never forget: the day her dad went off to war and the day he didn’t come back.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. We drove him to the airport, the Norfolk airport, and he boarded the plane. And we said goodbye, and he said, ‘I’ll see you soon. Be good kids for your mom.’ There were four of us, and, you know, he was excited to go,” Patricia Wilson said through tears.
On Memorial Day, News4 remembers Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Robertson, of Virginia. He was killed in Vietnam in 1969 on a final assignment he didn’t have to take. In a last love letter to his wife, Robertson said he was doing it “for my boys” and asked her to forgive him.
Robertson spent 10 months in Vietnam before he was pulled from the front lines and began preparing to go home.
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But then he got news he wasn’t expecting: A leader in his platoon had been injured, and Robertson felt the need to return.
It’s a story Wilson learned in 1982 after she read more than 300 letters her father wrote home to her mother.
“He probably could have sat in the back somewhere safe and rode out his time and come home, and he chose not to do that. He chose to take a chopper back to the front lines. He felt like his boys really needed him. These young 19, 20-year-old kids, and he had been the platoon leader for most of his time over there,” Wilson said.
On Aug. 26, 1969, Robertson was with Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry when they were in a firefight near Million Dollar Hill in the Que Son Valley.
Wilson later learned her father was trying to get to a wounded soldier when he was hit.
“I just remember the knock on the door, my mother just falling completely to pieces. She was inconsolable,” Wilson said.
My love, if I should die over here, it will not be for my country or this country. It will be for my boys. Please tell the kiddies that I love them and if this is my last letter please remember me. Whatever happens, I love you
Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Robertson
For many years, Wilson said her family never talked about her father’s death. There were no pictures of him in the house, and life moved on.
But the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in D.C. in 1982 changed everything.
Wilson and her siblings tried to learn everything they could about their father’s service. They went to the wall, took photos there and read his name in ceremonies.
Wilson says her father’s service was heroic. She knows that from the last letter he sent home, dated Aug. 20, 1969.
Wilson Read Her Late Father’s Last Letter Aloud
“My dear darling, honey I love you so very much. I am writing this letter at 8:30 p.m. tonight, for I want you to know how I feel about you. For you see, this might very well be my last letter. I know you will not understand or be able to understand what or why I’m doing, but I’ve got to do it. You see my company went in to relieve B company, where they had 27 men killed in two days. Well, now my company is taking a beating. Capt. Murphy, my company commander, has been hit in both legs and I am going out at 4:30 in the morning. Now I know what you are thinking, that I have too much to live for. Well, that’s very true but there are some times in a man’s life when he must do what he must. Honey please forgive me for this but my men have a brand-new officer, I just have to go out there and help them. I know that you will not understand but please try to see my side of it. My love, if I should die over here, it will not be for my country or this country. It will be for my boys. Please tell the kiddies that I love them and if this is my last letter please remember me. Whatever happens, I love you.”
Robertson was 33 when he was killed in action.
Wilson said her family knew her dad had chosen to stay in Vietnam even before his last letter reached them. Walter Cronkite had featured him on the CBS Evening News, in a moment that filled their family with pride.
