A SALUTE TO A FRIEND by Jerry Ball

A salute to Dexter Florence on what would have been his 60th birthday

My Friends,

About two months ago, I shared with you some of my angst of aging upon reaching my 60th birthday. I told you that I took off work that day just to be alone with my thoughts and ended up at the National Museum of the Pacific War. Seeing the exhibits there reminded me of many men of that era who never lived to be old. Then I started reflecting on our own generation and, particularly, of some who served with me in Vietnam.

Today, I have been thinking of Dex Florence and John Matthews from my Vietnam days. Today, March 27, 2007, would have been Dex’s 60th birthday.

Dexter Bush Florence flew Loach helicopters in Vietnam. Small in stature, he was as big as anybody when he strapped into his bird. There are men alive today who would not be had Dex not done his duty and then some. A college classmate of Dex, John was a member of the ultrasecret MACSOG group whose special operations activities carried them to many parts of Southeast Asia. (John was nicknamed “Bart” because some of the guys thought he resembled a Bartlett pear.) One October Sunday in 1972, Dex, Bart and I were in Saigon eating French onion soup, quaffing brews, and generally giving each other a ration of grief about each of our unit’s contribution to the war effort. (Not unlike the gibes tossed back and forth in the locker rooms of Pat Conroy’s book, My Losing Season, which I highly recommend to military brats, especially those who played basketball.) Before that week was out, Dex was dead – the victim of a command detonated explosive that took down his helicopter and left him to sear from the flames until death mercifully released him from the pain three days later. The official report reports it this way: “On 26 October 1972 1LT Dexter Bush Florence, pilot, and SSG Keven Zane Goodno, observer, were on a scout mission in an OH-6A Loach. While hovering at tree-top level, a command-detonated mine blew the OH-6 out of the air. SSG Goodno was killed instantly, while 1LT Florence was seriously injured. He was evacuated to Japan where he died on 29 October of injuries received.”

Should you ever pass by the little town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas and see the small airfield there named Florence Field, give a nod to a great American whose hometown gave the honor of naming their aerial link to the world after their native son.

Before the year of 1972 was out, Bart was on a classified mission that went bad. Badly wounded, he was medevaced out of country. Eventually, he ended up back home at the veterans hospital in Little Rock, not far from his home. He earned a Purple Heart and a medical discharge. I visited him in 1973 or 1974, but now I don’t know where he is. Or if.

Of the three of us at that meal in Saigon, only I came back undamaged from the war. A sobering thought.

So in these closing moments of March 27, 2007, I wanted to note Dex’s 60th birthday. Thanks for letting me share this salute with you. God bless the friends of my youth – those who are gone and those who live on.

Jerry

(Jerry Ball '65
jcrsdj@aol.com)