By Tracy Gupton
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is a prominent national memorial dedicated to the men and women who served in the Vietnam War. The memorial’s most striking feature is the wall itself, inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 service members who died or remain missing during the conflict in Vietnam.
The names of at least two brave men who occupy a small branch of my personal family tree are among those 58,000 plus who lost their lives in Vietnam. A first cousin, Danny Louis Broadway, my mother’s sister’s son, came home from two tours of duty in Vietnam with his body intact, but the same could not be said for his mental state. I am now the president of the Columbia Cemetery Association where my cousin Danny’s grave remains a constant reminder to me of the tragic turn his life took when he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a young man living in East Columbia. Danny Broadway was only 26 years old when a Waco police officer shot and killed him in 1976.
Danny walked away from the military hospital in Waco where he was being treated for a mental disorder caused by “the horror,” as Marlon Brando uttered his final words in the movie Apocalypse Now, my cousin had witnessed and endured in Vietnam. The lawman pulled his patrol car over on the side of the road to question Danny Broadway when my cousin was acting irrationally. He allegedly told the police officer he was going home, to Brazoria County, and asked the lawman to drive him there from Waco. The story of Danny’s death, as it was told to me nearly 50 years ago, was Danny shoved the officer down and got into the patrol car and was shot as he attempted to drive away.
First Lieutenant Morton Elmer Townes Jr. was only 24 when his life ended in Vietnam. My research of this young hero on Ancestry.com tells me that he was my third cousin. His name, and that of Private First Class Thomas Alton Ferguson of Damon, Texas, are both etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Private Ferguson, the uncle of my brother-in-law Chris Kuban, was mortally wounded on his 21st birthday and died the following day.
My nephew, Tommy Kuban, was named for his father’s uncle who died in Bien Hoa, Don Nai, Vietnam, March 11, 1968. The Brazoria County native was born in 1947, the son of Hugh Virgle Ferguson and Jessie Faye Hoelewyn Ferguson of Damon. His 21st birthday on March 10, 1968, was the darkest of days for Tommy Ferguson. We will let his fellow Army soldier Jerry “Ski” Jaworski tell us how Tommy’s death occurred.
I found this post on “Wall of Faces” online while searching for background information on how Tommy Ferguson’s life ended at the age of 21. “I was present at the incident in which Thomas was critically wounded,” Jaworski wrote. “He was wounded as the was riding on an APC (armored personnel carrier) when it passed over a massive land mine (IED) in the Binh Sohn rubber plantation on March 7, 1968. I was driving the APC directly behind the one that hit the mine. Killed instantly were Harry Kenneth Vaughan (driver), James Gary Randall and Donald Wayne Tisdale.
“Passing away later was Thomas and Herbert Hugo Cato III,” Jaworski recalled the horrible scene he witnessed in Vietnam. “I will never forget that tragic day. Ironically (and sadly) the French plantation manager gave our CO (company commander) a bill for the rubber trees we destroyed clearing an LZ for the medivac choppers. The CO told me at a reunion a few years ago that the bill was never paid. Rest in Peace, Thomas.”
That online post was written by Jerry Jaworski in 2016. That same year my brother-in-law’s sister, Melissa Ferguson, posted on the “Wall of Faces” website: “Thank you so much, Uncle Tommy, for being such a loving and kind son, brother, uncle, cousin, husband and friend. We have never forgotten you and your bravery and never will. We love and miss you beyond all measure.”
And that is exactly what Memorial Day is all about. Millions just view it as a three-day weekend. But for the family members of those brave soldiers and sailors who came home in a body bag if they came home at all, Memorial Day is much, much more. It is a day to remember the sacrifices of so very many whose lives were lost in battle. To this lifelong West Columbian, today I share these stories of a pair of relatives I never knew. My father, Rex Gupton, and his three brothers–Thurman, Aubrey and S.D. Gupton–all served in the military during World War II. Luckily, all four Gupton brothers came home alive and lived into their seventies, with eldest brother Judge Thurman Gupton being the only one in his family to live into his eighties.
My Dad and his brothers and their sister, Ruby Nell Gupton Fontenot, lost two cousins during World War II. Those cousins’ families experienced the emotional distress of losing a loved one at war like the families of Thomas Ferguson and Morton Townes were forced to endure.
“While all deaths in Vietnam are tragic, that you died one day after your 21st birthday is especially so,” wrote John Fabris in 2022 on the “Wall of Faces” website about Tommy Ferguson, who served with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. “May you rest in eternal peace.”
Tommy Ferguson, who was buried at Cedar Lawn Haven of Rest Cemetery in West Columbia when his body was returned to his family from Vietnam, was awarded a Purple Heart, Vietnam Gallantry Cross and Army Presidential Unit Citation posthumously. His family was also given Tommy’s National Defense Service Medal.
Tommy’s nephew, Chris Kuban’s younger brother Hugh Virgle “Bubba” Ferguson III, was only six years old when his uncle died in Vietnam. Bubba Ferguson, who died at 52 in 2014, wrote on “Wall of Faces” in 2013: “It has been 45 years since you left us. Now you have Dad, Jimmy, Sarah, grandpa and grandma with you. I hope y’all are all together and looking down on us and smiling and knowing that we miss y’all so much.”
First Lieutenant Morton Townes Jr.’s grandmother was my grandmother’s cousin. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Born in Mobile, Alabama, on Halloween 1941, He grew up the son of Brigadier General Morton Elmer Townes Sr., who married my cousin Martha Pauline Smith. His mother Pauline was the daughter of Alice Meadows Smith. My Dad’s mother was Eula Meadows Gupton.
Morton made his father proud by attending Texas A&M University where he was in the Corps of Cadets, and later graduated second in his class at officers’ candidate school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and also attended West Point Prep School. His mother died in 1957, so she did not have to endure the extreme grief of losing her son in Vietnam. Morton was assigned to Vietnam in October 1966, less than three months after his second son, Scott Christopher Townes, was born. He and his wife, Margaret Anne O’Brien Townes, welcomed their first child, Michael Sterling Townes, home in December 1964.
A little research involving the internet revealed that First Lieutenant Townes met his death as follows: “While supporting a combined operation for field artillery, Morton was ambushed. Even though he was seriously injured, he continued to direct artillery fire and refused medical treatment until his men were treated. For his gallantry, Morton was awarded the Silver Star.”
My son, Bret Gupton, was also in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University and served four years in the U.S. Navy. I will be forever grateful that Bret is still a valuable part of my family today and did not meet the same fate as his cousin, Morton Townes Jr. My brother-in-law Ronnie Hall was in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. Luckily, Ronnie returned home safely and lived to tell many stories of his time spent in ‘Nam, stories Morton Townes Jr. and Tommy Ferguson did not get the opportunity to tell.
Lieutenant Colonel Townes’ widow, Margaret Ann, accepted her husband’s Silver Star and Purple Heart at a presentation held three months after Morton’s death. Lt. General Thomas W. Dunn, commander of the Fourth Army, honored Morton at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. The decree read by Dunn was as follows: “The young lieutenant was killed after he and his American companions, and South Vietnamese troops fighting with them, came under attack by the Viet Cong. He and his observation party were on patrol as part of a larger force when an artillery round exploded against the party as it approached an enemy position. Lieutenant Townes, with complete disregard for his own welfare, concerned himself solely with obtaining medical attention for those of his party who were wounded. Although suffering from a severe leg wound himself, he made his way to the radio, and finding it still operational, called to his unit to inform it that the party had been hit. The gravely wounded lieutenant worked the radio for almost half an hour under the enemy attack to call in helicopters to carry out the dead, the dying and wounded.
“His efforts,” the citation read, “were directly responsible for saving the lives of several South Vietnamese, who were part of the friendly force participating in the operation.”
First Lieutenant Townes was a forward observer with the 30th U.S. Artillery when he was killed.
