Moonlight Conversation with Danny Drinkard

Stan Dillon delivered this recollection at a memorial service for Danny Drinkard. The night he describes was shortly before the April 20, 1971 contact that killed Drinkard, James Cardwell, and Joseph Hall, and left Dillon severely wounded.

Danny... I liked him, I could tell right off the bat that he was a very good guy. He was an extremely good guy. He was honest, he was thoughtful. Him and I talked one night — we were sitting out there just by moonlight. You weren't allowed to smoke, you couldn't light a lighter, you couldn't turn on a flashlight. You had to maintain darkness so that the enemy couldn't see you and shoot you.

And we were sitting out there, and we started talking about his marriage. He had only been married a few months prior to coming to Vietnam. And we started talking about his wife, Lana, and her beautiful two little girls that she had, and he just had fallen in love with them.

He and I both talked that night by ourselves. No lights, just the moonlight. Talking about our wives and the kids and that. And it was just... I could tell right at that moment what a great guy he was and how much he talked about the kids and his wife. I could tell he was a really upstanding guy and he was going to make a fantastic father. And I didn't really talk to him much after that. It was mostly just business, you know? Like what we're doing that day, and things like that.

But that one night has stuck with me for over 50 years, and I still remember that like it was yesterday.