Captain Winston Robinson

Name & Rank: Captain Winston T. Robinson. Age: 24

Branch: US Army. Entry date: May 1964. Release Date: September 1967

War Time Veteran From: Vietnam, October 1966 - September 1967

Overseas Duty: From 10-21-1966 to 9-6-67, Country: Vietnam

Battery C 2/20 Arty

1st Air Cavalry Division

APO SF, Ca 96490

Captain Winston Robinson was 20 years old when he enlisted in the Army in 1964. He had always felt the pull to be a soldier. When all the other boys were playing cowboys and Indians with toy pistols and rifles, Winston carried an imaginary machine gun and fought the Germans. Growing up on his parents’ farm outside of Rector, AR, afforded him the opportunity to hone many of the skills he would need to be a good soldier.

After graduating from Rector High School, he attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, joining ROTC as soon as he was eligible, and earning the award for Outstanding Achievement on ROTC Day. When he graduated from Arkansas State University in May of 1964, as a Distinguished Military Graduate, he received his Regular Army Commission.

1964 was a big year for Winston. In January he had married the love of his life, Sandra Sue McAllister, from Newport, AR. In May he graduated from ASU and became a U.S. Army Officer in training. Soon he was kissing his bride goodbye as he headed to Fort Benning, GA for Infantry Officer Basic Schooling and Ranger and Airborne Training.

In April of 1965 Winston was assigned to Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 46th Infantry, at Fort Hood, TX. He and Sue and their young son made their home there until January 1966, when they transferred to Fort Walters, TX and then Fort Rucker, Alabama where he completed nine months of helicopter pilot training.

He had a young wife and a two-year-old son when he was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 20th Aerial Rocket Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam to, report for duty in October 1966. This was his duty. This was the life he had trained for and the life he had always known was to be his. He embraced it as he had embraced everything else in his young life, with fervor and determination.

And every day he tried to find a quiet spot for a few moments and write a line or two to Sue back home, just to let her know he was okay, just because he needed that semblance of normalcy, that thread that kept him connected to the Arkansas Delta, to home. Every time he wrote to Sue, of course he wrote a line or two to Scott as well. He knew, Scott was still a toddler and he didn’t want Scott to forget him. He told him over and over again that when the leaves on the trees changed color and started to fall off, it would be time for Daddy to come home.

He did his job to the best of his ability, looking out for his brothers as they looked out for him. No one was alone in the jungle. They were all part of a larger unit. On December 27, 1966, the call came in requesting assistance from an embattled ground force. Captain Robinson volunteered. As he flew his aircraft over the battle site, again and again, he was exposed to heavy enemy ground fire. Still he made several low-level rocket attacks, earning a citation for heroism. It was only one of 25 missions he flew in the Republic of Vietnam between October 1966 and September 1967.

In February 1967 he attended PACAF jungle survival school and then returned to his unit. On September 6, 1967 Captain Winston Robinson was killed in action in the Republic of Vietnam, just weeks before he was due to return to the States.

He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal and the Air Medal with first through twenty-fourth oak leaf clusters for separate acts of heroism. He was also awarded the Purple Heart.

A few weeks later, when three-year-old Scott looked up one day and saw the leaves on tree had changed colors and some were already falling to the ground, he ran to his grandfather and said, “The leaves are falling, it’s time for my daddy to come home.”

Captain Winston Robinson, a son, a brother, a wonderful husband and loving father, you are not forgotten. You live on in the hearts of your friends and family. Rector honors you and honors your service and the sacrifice of you and your family. Thank you.