Robert David Law

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Some stories start quiet and end like thunder. This one starts in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 15, 1944, when Robert David Law came into the world as the son of Robert M. and Martha E.

Law — she was a Morris before she married. Robert grew up in Fort Worth, went to Fort Worth Technical High School, graduated in 1964, and was a member of Southcliff Baptist Church. By all accounts, just a young man finding his footing in the world.

Then came October 17, 1967. Robert walked into the U.S. Army enlistment office in Dallas and signed his name.

From there he was off to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for Basic Combat Training and Infantry Advanced Individual Training, where he earned the rank of Private First Class. But Robert Law wasn't finished pushin' himself. In the summer of 1968, he graduated from Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Think about that for a second — the man voluntarily learned to jump out of perfectly good aircraft. And then he received his orders: F Company, Ranger, 52nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Vietnam.

In combat. From 1968 into 1969, Law served as a scout observer — the kind of soldier who goes out ahead, eyes open, reading the land so other men don't walk into what they can't survive. He was promoted to Specialist Four, E-4.

In February of 1969, a reorganization folded his unit into I Company, Ranger, 75th Infantry Regiment, still the 1st Infantry Division. New designation, same dangerous work. Now here's where the story turns, and I want you to feel the weight of it.

SP4 Law had been in Vietnam for eight months. Eight months of jungle and heat and listening for sounds that don't belong. He didn't have to raise his hand for what came next.

But he volunteered — volunteered — for a mission to gather intelligence near the Cambodian border, northeast of the 1st Infantry Division base camp at Lai Khe. The mission began February 20, 1969. Law was pacing a patrol of six rangers, inserted by helicopter into territory that would not be friendly.

Within one hour of setting down, they were in a gunfight. One hour. Law sprayed rifle fire into the woods to cover the patrol's retreat for the night.

They pulled back, held together, lived through the dark. The next day, February 21, the rangers moved carefully, monitoring enemy troops near a log bridge over a stream. Tense work.

The kind of silence that has a sound all its own. Then came the morning of February 22, 1969. Three Viet Cong soldiers spotted the rangers and opened fire.

In the middle of that exchange — the chaos, the smoke, the noise — a grenade rolled close to three of his fellow rangers. Three men who were right there, in arm's reach. Robert David Law threw himself on that grenade.

He was killed instantly. He was twenty-four years old. When his mother was notified of her son's death, she said that his letters home had made one thing clear — and I'll let her words carry it, because no one else's will do.

She said: "He knew what he was fighting for." In August 1970, at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Richard M. Nixon presented SP4 Law's family with the Medal of Honor — posthumously, for his selfless and decisive actions in those final moments near the Cambodian border. A man from Fort Worth, raised in his church, trained at Fort Polk and Fort Benning, who volunteered for one more mission and spent his last breath making sure three other men got to go home.

That's the story the marker tells. And it deserves to be told.

What the marker says

_Specialist Four, United States Army_ Robert David Law was born on September 15, 1944, to Robert M. and Martha E. (Morris) Law in Fort Worth. He attended Fort Worth Technical High School, graduating in 1964, and was a member of Southcliff Baptist Church. Law enlisted in the U.S. Army at Dallas on October 17, 1967. He completed his Basic Combat Training and Infantry Advanced Individual Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and was advanced in rank to Private First Class. He graduated from Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in summer 1968, and received orders to join F Company (Ranger), 52nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in combat in the Republic of (South) Vietnam. From 1968-69, Law served as a scout observer and was promoted in rank to E-4 as a Specialist Four (SP4). Under a February 1969 reorganization, his unit became I Company (Ranger), 75th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. SP4 Law had been in Vietnam for eight months when he volunteered for a mission to gather intelligence near the Cambodian border, northeast of the 1st Infantry Division base camp at Lai Khe. Law paced a patrol of six rangers beginning on February 20, 1969. Within an hour of their insertion by helicopter, the patrol was in a gunfight. Law sprayed rifle fire into the woods to cover the patrol’s retreat for the night. The next day, the rangers monitored enemy troops near a log bridge over a stream. On the morning of February 22, three Viet Cong soldiers spotted the rangers and opened fire. During the exchange, a grenade rolled close to three of the rangers. Law threw himself on the grenade to save his comrades and was killed instantly. When notified about her son’s death, his mother remarked that his letters home indicated that “He knew what he was fighting for.” In August 1970 at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Richard M. Nixon presented SP4 Law’s family with a posthumous Medal of Honor for his selfless and decisive actions. (2020)