VETERAN OF THE DAY
August 31, 2026
Chief Warrant Officer William Leon Vick
United States Marine Corps
Explosive Ordnance Disposal
H&MS-17 • MWSG-17 • 1st Marine Aircraft Wing • III MAF
March 11, 1926 – August 30, 1968
Paducah, Kentucky
“He Survived the Frozen Hell of Chosin. Twenty Years Later, Vietnam Called Him Into Danger One Final Time.”
A Son of Kentucky
Before Korea.
Before Vietnam.
Before the Silver Star.
Before other Marines would remember him as one of the finest Marines they had ever known…
There was a young man from Paducah, Kentucky, named William Leon Vick.
Born March 11, 1926, Vick belonged to a generation whose youth collided with a world at war.
He entered the Marine Corps and made it his life’s profession.
And over the decades that followed, the Corps would take this Kentucky son into some of the most dangerous places an American Marine could go.
Korea
When war erupted on the Korean Peninsula in 1950, William Vick went to war.
And his path eventually led him to one of the most legendary and brutal battles in Marine Corps history:
The Chosin Reservoir.
Winter temperatures plunged far below zero.
Weapons froze.
Men suffered frostbite simply trying to survive.
Chinese forces surrounded vastly outnumbered United Nations troops.
Yet the Marines fought their way out.
William Vick was among them.
A fellow Marine who later served alongside Vick recalled learning only years afterward about what Vick had done at Chosin because Vick rarely spoke about his combat experiences.
For his gallantry during the Korean War, Vick received the Silver Star. (Virtual Wall)
That silence tells us something about the man.
He had already experienced extraordinary combat.
He had already demonstrated extraordinary courage.
But he apparently felt little need to tell people about it.
He simply continued being a Marine.
The Marine Other Marines Remembered
Years later, Vick served in Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Quantico, Virginia.
EOD is an occupation requiring a peculiar combination of intelligence, technical mastery and courage.
When everyone else is told:
Stay away.
The EOD technician walks toward the danger.
A Marine who served with Vick at Quantico in 1958 and 1959 later remembered him in remarkable terms, calling him the “finest Marine” he had known during nine years in the Corps and describing Vick as the genuine article behind the image of the ideal Marine. (Virtual Wall)
Another Marine remembered Vick’s leadership of the Quantico EOD section and the quality of the Marines who served beneath him.
Still another remembered being one of Vick’s EOD students and remained proud decades later simply to have known him. (The Wall)
That is a different kind of decoration.
It isn’t worn on a uniform.
It lives in the memories of the Marines you taught.
Then Came Vietnam
By 1968, William Vick had already served through another war.
He had survived Chosin.
He had become an experienced EOD Marine.
He had trained others.
He had earned the respect of the men around him.
And now America was fighting in Vietnam.
Vick served with Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron 17, Marine Wing Support Group 17, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Amphibious Force. (Virtual Wall)
His specialty placed him in a war filled with rockets, artillery, unexploded bombs and ammunition.
Every call carried risk.
Then came the morning of August 30, 1968.
The Call From Ha Thanh
At approximately 7:30 that morning, an urgent request arrived from Special Forces personnel at Ha Thanh, about 25 kilometers west of Quang Ngai.
A 122mm rocket had landed inside the Special Forces camp without exploding.
Someone had to make it safe.
Three Marines answered the call:
Captain James W. Jones
Chief Warrant Officer William L. Vick
Sergeant John R. Beck
They were EOD Marines.
Danger was precisely why they had been summoned.
They traveled by helicopter and arrived at the camp at approximately 10:35 a.m.
The three Marines walked uphill toward the operations area.
They entered the operations shack and began receiving instructions about the location of the unexploded rocket.
Five minutes later…
10:40 a.m.
Another enemy 122mm rocket came screaming into the compound.
This one exploded. (Virtual Wall)
A Direct Hit
The rocket struck the operations shack directly.
Captain Jones was killed.
Sergeant Beck was killed.
William Leon Vick was killed.
Two U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were also killed, Master Sergeant Tadeusz Sosniak and Private First Class Richard E. Traster, and others were wounded. (Virtual Wall)
There is a cruel symmetry to William Vick’s final mission.
He had gone to Ha Thanh to protect others from a rocket that hadn’t exploded.
He was killed by one that did.
The EOD Marine had walked toward danger one final time.
The Man Who Wasn’t There
There is another extraordinary fragment of this story.
A fellow EOD serviceman later recalled that he had been working through the previous night.
Vick, Beck and Jones allowed him to sleep while they took the morning assignment.
Those three Marines never returned.
For the rest of his life, that veteran remembered them, eventually tracing their names from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. (Johnson Brown-Service Funeral Home)
Sometimes the smallest decisions made during war echo for a lifetime.
Two Wars
William Leon Vick’s story stretches across two defining conflicts of his generation.
Korea.
Vietnam.
At Chosin, he faced overwhelming enemy forces and bitter cold.
He survived.
In Vietnam, nearly eighteen years later, he was still serving his country.
Still a Marine.
Still accepting dangerous assignments.
Still walking toward threats so that other Americans might be safe.
This time he did not return.
The Wall
Today his name appears on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial:
WILLIAM L VICK
PANEL 45W • LINE 5
He was 42 years old.
His home of record remained Paducah, Kentucky. (Virtual Wall)
But the black granite tells us only his name.
It cannot tell us about Korea.
It cannot tell us about Chosin.
It cannot tell us about the Silver Star.
It cannot tell us about Quantico.
It cannot tell us about the Marines he taught.
And it cannot tell us about the morning he climbed aboard a helicopter because an unexploded enemy rocket was threatening American lives.
That is why we tell the story.
His Fellow Marines Never Forgot Him
Years after William’s death, Marines who had known him continued leaving memories.
One remembered his leadership.
Another remembered being his student.
Another remembered simply being fortunate enough to work alongside him.
And members of the military EOD community continued gathering to remember those who had given their lives performing one of the most dangerous jobs in the armed forces. (Virtual Wall)
William Vick had achieved something every great military leader hopes for.
The people he led remembered him.
Reflection
He survived Chosin.
He earned the Silver Star.
He became a teacher of Marines.
And when one final call said Americans were in danger, William Vick walked toward the threat.
Because that was his job.
Because that was his character.
Because he was a United States Marine.
Our Veteran of the Day
On this final day of August, the Micky Spano Radio Show proudly honors a son of Kentucky:
Chief Warrant Officer William Leon Vick
United States Marine Corps
Korean War Veteran
Chosin Reservoir Survivor
Silver Star Recipient
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Marine
Vietnam War Veteran
March 11, 1926 – August 30, 1968
From Paducah, Kentucky, to the frozen mountains of Korea…
From the EOD ranges of Quantico…
To a Special Forces camp in Vietnam…
William Leon Vick spent his life doing what Marines have done for generations:
Going where he was needed.
Yesterday marked 58 years since his death.
Today, we say his name again.
WILLIAM LEON VICK
Marine. Warrior. Teacher. Hero.
Semper Fidelis.
Honor The Fallen | Support The Living | Teach The Next Generation
TWO WARS • ONE MARINE • A LIFETIME OF COURAGE
