Jocko Podcast - Christmas 2018: Be Grateful. And Keep Smiling

Episode Date: December 22, 2018

A letter written by Mrs. Eleanor Wimbish, Mother of Sgt. William R. "Spanky" Stocks, who was killed in action in a helicopter crash in Vietnam on Feb 13 1969. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Dear Bill, today is February 13th, 1984. Came to this black wall again to see and touch your name. And as I do, I wonder if anyone ever stops to realize that next to your name on this black wall is your mother's heart. A heart broken 15 years ago today when you lost your life in Vietnam. and as I look at your name William R. Stocks I think of how many, many times

I used to wonder how scared and homesick you must have been in that strange country called Vietnam and if and how it might have changed you for you were the most happy go lucky kid in the world hardly ever sad or unhappy

and until the day I died I will see you as you laughed at me even when I was very mad at you and the next thing I knew We were laughing together as past New Year's day I had my answer I talked by phone to a friend of yours from Michigan who spent your last Christmas and the last four months of your life with you Jim told me how you died For he was there and saw the helicopter crash he told me how you had flown your quota and had not been scheduled to fly that day How the regular pilot was unable to fly and had been replaced by someone with less experience

How they did not know the exact cause of the crash how it was either hit by enemy fire Or that they hit a pole or something unknown how the blades went through the chopper and hit you how you lived about a half hour, but were unconscious and therefore did not suffer. He said how your jobs were like sitting ducks. They would send you men out to draw the enemy into the open. And then they would send in the big guns and planes to take over. Meantime, death came to so many of you. He told me how, after a while over there, instead of a yellow streak, the men got a mean streak down their backs. Each day the streak got bigger, and the men became meaner.

Everyone but you, Bill. He said how you stayed the same happy-go-lucky guy that you were when you arrived in Vietnam. How your warmth and friendliness drew the guys to you. How your lieutenant gave you the nickname of Spanky. And soon your group, Jim included, were all known as Spanky's gang. How when you died, it made it so much harder on them. For you were their moral support. And he said how you, of all people, should never have been the one to die.

How it hurts to write this. But I must face it and then put it to rest. I know that after Jim talked to me, he must have... have relifted all over again and suffered so before I hung up the phone I told Jim I loved him loved him for just being your close friend and for sharing the last days of your life with you and for being there with you when you died how lucky you were to have him for a friend and how lucky he was to have had you there that same day I received a phone call from a mother in Billings, Montana. She had lost her daughter, her only child,

a year ago. She needed someone to talk to, for no one would let her talk about the tragedy. She said she had seen me on television on New Year's Eve after the Christmas letter I wrote to you and left that this memorial had drawn newspaper and television attention. She said she had been thinking about me all day and just had to talk to me. She talked to me of her pain. and seemingly needed me to help her with it. I cried with this heartbroken mother. And after I hung up the phone, I laid my head down and cried as hard for her.

Here was a mother calling me for help with her pain over the loss of her child, a grown daughter. And as I sobbed, I thought, how can I help her with her pain when I have never completely been able to cope with my own? They tell me the letters I write to you and leave here at this memorial are waking others up to the fact that there is still much pain left after all these years from the Vietnam War.

But this I know, I would rather to have had you for 21 years and all the pain that goes with losing you than never to have had you. At all. That was a letter. Written by Mrs. Eleanor Wimbish, mother of Sergeant William R. Spanky Stocks. from Glenn Bernie, Maryland, who was killed in action in a helicopter crash in Vietnam on February 13th, 1969.

It was one of many that she has written and places beneath panel 32 where his name is etched into the Vietnam Memorial Wall along with more than 58,000 other names of our fallen heroes. And I read an interview with Mrs. Wimbish from 1990. And in that interview, she said, when my son died, I wrote my pledge. I said, I will not now or ever let people forget.

Mrs. Wimbish and her son, Bill Spankystocks, this holiday season, let us all remember. the service and supreme sacrifice of so many let us learn some important lessons from mrs wimbish and from her son from mrs wimbish we learn to be thankful for what we have had even if it is lost and even if that loss causes pain still and from her son bill we can learn that even in the face of horror and death our warmth and our friendliness and that that warmth and friendliness can guide and support others bolster the spirit of those around you by simply smiling as we celebrate the holidays let us be thankful for what we have and like sergeant william Bill Spanky stocks.

Merry Christmas.