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Marine PFC Thomas J. Holtzclaw, Jr. wrote near-daily letters to his family and friends in Atlanta while in heavy combat in Vietnam. Snatching moments under the jungle canopy by day and by candle light in sweltering bunkers he wrote from when he landed in Vietnam in late December 1966 until his combat death less than four months later. Tommy J, as he was called since childhood, was three days shy of his 19th birthday when he was struck down in an ambush near Da Nang, South Vietnam. Twenty-seven other Marines from Holtzclaw’s regiment were killed that terrible day.
Tommy J enlisted in the Marines in 1966 at age 17 upon graduating from O’Keefe High School in Atlanta. He was an honor student in the top 10% of his class who lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Upon hearing of his death, less than one year from graduation, his football coach wrote he was “...a 125-ponder with the heart of a 250-pounder.. the kind who never missed a practice or an assignment.”
Tommy J wrote nearly a dozen people. Parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors received his words from Vietnam that described his life in the field. He wrote of booby traps and punji stakes:
his fears and how he felt having to kill someone. “It is an awful feeling.”
Of the future he said, “One day this will all be a dream but I hope I don’t dream about it.”
His requests for necessities from home: “I’m not telling you to send them ... take the money from my account.”