A final ‘Letter from Vietnam’
Mark Garrow was a year younger than Tom Bradley in school, but the two spent a lot of time together hunting, fishing, playing cards — things buddies often do. After he graduated from Minneota High School in 1965, Bradley was drafted into the U.S. Army.
"Dennis Broughten (also one of Bradley's friends) and I were fishing at Red Lake and I told Denny that I needed to send Tom a postcard," said Garrow, thinking back to 1968.
"After I got a postcard at the post office the next day, I started walking over to Tom's parents' house to get his address."
Garrow doesn't recall who it was, but he was stopped by someone on the sidewalk before he arrived at the Bradley home. "They told me Tom had been killed in Vietnam," Garrow said, somberly.
"I couldn't believe it."
A couple of days later, Garrow was asked to come over to the Bradley home. Tom's clothes and other items had been shipped there and the Bradleys wanted Garrow to have an item of their son's as a keepsake.
"I really didn't want any of the army clothes because I always felt those should be worn by those in the military," Garrow explained.
"So his parents asked me to take his boots. So I did. And they were the most comfortable boots I've ever owned in my life."
Garrow doesn't have the boots anymore, but his memory of his fallen friend will always be with him. Garrow and dozens of others paid their respects to Bradley on Saturday at the Hettling Brothers Vietnam Memorial and History Center in Minneota. Bradley's siblings, Deb (Bradley) Ahmann and Dick Bradley, hosted a memorial event there to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their brother's death on June 19, 1968 at age 21.
"They say you never die if you keep hearing someone's name," said Deb, who now lives in Marshall.
"And I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard Tom's name today. "Someone told me this was like a celebration; and it does feel like a celebration. I keep hearing all these stories that I didn't know about my brother ... and that is just what I was hoping for."
"I hadn't seen some of these people in 50 years," said Dick, who lives in St. James.
"These are people I grew up with. Some of them were friends of Tom's that became friends of mine after Tom died. So it was great seeing them all again."
Broughten was a classmate of Tom Bradley and served as one of the pallbearers at his funeral.
"We were good friends after Tom came over from St. Ed's in ninth grade," said Broughten.
"I remember we used to go over to Dalager's and buy some pop or something.”
"When we got a little older, we went to the drive-on theater in Marshall or to the roller rink in Balaton."
Broughten and his friend Bob Bossuyt of Cottonwood took in the Vietnam Memorial in Washinton, D.C. in the early 90s and located Tom Bradley's name on the wall. "Denny was telling me about this event today," said Bossuyt.
"I didn't know (Bradley), but I wanted to come over and pay my respects. My brother and son were both in the Navy."
Lon Gawerecki, also a former classmate of Tom's, served as an honor guard at his funeral. "We gave him a 21-gun salute," Gawerecki said.
"It's really hard to believe it's been 50 years since he died." While Charlie Hettling was giving a group of lecture and tour of the museum, Royal Hettling was showing some in attendance a final letter Bradley had written home.
"The letter was dated June 18 and Tom was killed on June 19," said Royal. "It's sad to read some of the things written in the letter.”
Bradley began the letter by apologizing for not writing home earlier because he had been so busy, and concluded by apologizing to his father for not being able to send him a Father's Day present because he was unable to get into the Cu Chi to ship it. Ken Buysse was in basic training with Tom in Fort Lewis, WA.
"I had always noticed nickels on Tom's headstone at the cemetery," Deb noted, referring to the tradition of leaving nickels for someone a person went to basic training with.
"And Ken told me he was the one that had been leaving the coins when I asked him."
Ken also left a hard-cover basic training annual similar to a high school yearbook for Deb and Dick to look at.
"Ken said that he and Tom were supposed to meet the day Tom was killed," Deb said.
"They were both in the same area of Vietnam and were planning to get together.”
"When Ken was telling us that story, he had tears in his eyes."
Sgt. Tom Bradley was a heavy-vehicle driver for the U.S. Army in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. He was killed near Saigon while on a mission.
And because Tom was killed in action at such an early age, his siblings hardly got to know him. So the stories they were able to hear on Saturday helped give them some closure.