Oct. 20, 1962 - In a simple ceremony at the sunbaked airport in Saigon today, Americans and South Vietnamese paid their final respects to three Americans who were killed in action this week. The men were Capt. Terry Cordell (pictured), Capt. Herbert Willoughby Booth Jr., and T. Sgt. Richard Foxx. Three caskets wrapped in American flags were placed in a transport plane, and now they are on the way home. Two Protestant chaplains officiated at a ceremony at Tan Son Nhut Field. Part of the service was drowned out by American helicopters overhead carrying Vietnamese troops into combat against the Viet Cong. The three men were in a spotter plane during an attack north of Banmethuot. Of the men who were killed, Capt. Cordell, a Special Forces officer, was best known because he had been senior adviser at a training camp for Montagnards near Banmethuot. Just a month ago, he had briefed Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor on the operation. “He was the best we had,” a colleague remarked today. “Every man is a good man after he dies, but Terry was a good man when he was alive.”
