By Jon Johnson
GRAHAM COUNTY — The Arizona Special Forces Association Chapter XXII cordially invites the public to Rest Haven Memorial Gardens off E. Airport Road on Saturday, May 24, to honor fallen Army Sergeant Walter Bruce Foote and remember his service.
The event, a nearly 40-year-old annual tradition, will begin at 9 a.m.
Sgt. Foote graduated from Safford High School in 1966 and was an Eagle Scout who also held his Duty to God award from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attended the University of Arizona before Vietnam, and a sense of duty came calling.
He turned down an opportunity to attend Officer Candidate School and instead trained to become a Green Beret. He graduated from Special Forces Training at Fort Bragg with honors in 1968 and went off to serve his country.
Sgt. Foote was killed in action on March 6, 1970, while serving in the Mekong Delta near Moc Hoa with the A Team Detachment 413 of the 5th Special Forces Group. As an adviser to a company-sized Vietnamese force, he came upon small arms fire at a landing zone but remained in place while requesting gunship strikes. After the gunships expended their ammunition, Sgt. Foote continued suppressive fire while wounded and unable to move. Enemy combatants eventually overtook his position, and Sgt. Foote was mortally wounded.
In 1970, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for Valor, along with the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantry Badge, Parachute Badge, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with campaign stars, Vietnam Campaign Medal with service bar, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. Sgt. Foote rests eternally next to his father, Walter Foote Jr., and mother, Nellie Foote.
