General Gray has been kind enough to stay in touch over the years. We appeared together at a number of conferences, and he shared the stage with me in 2016 at the National Security Agency when I told the story of what happened to me, an NSA employee, in Saigon.
Two other details about the general are worth mentioning. Scott Laidig, in his biography of General Gray (Al Gray, Marine: The Early Years, 1958-1975, Vol 2), briefly mentions General Gray’s rescue of me in a detailed narrative about the fall of Saigon. He notes that I was seriously ill. I’m honored to be included in the long list of achievements that General Gray accomplished during those terrifying days.
The other detail is a short conversation that the general and I had sometime in the mid-1960s. I asked him why he never married. His answer: “If the Marine Corps wanted me to have a wife, it would issue me one.” The general did marry later. I’ve never met his wife. If I ever do, I’ll keep that memory to myself.
