Harry L. Ecton Vietnam War correspondence and photographs

Private First Class Harry Leon Ecton, United States Army (9/28/1947 - 1/31/1968) was born in Oberauerbach, Germany to Brigitte Heintz and Leon Ecton. He was an only child.

Sergeant First Class Leon Garrett Ecton, United States Army (3/31/1921 - 1/10/2001) was born in Maryland to Norman Lester and Nina Mae Ecton and enlisted in the US Army in December 1945, shipping overseas for occupation forces with a field artillery unit and eventually serving with Company A, 3rd MTB, 35th Armor in Germany. In Oberauerbach, he met Brigitte Amalie Heintz (12/30/1924 - 5/6/2019), daughter of Otto and Amalie Heintz, and together they had their son Harry in 1947. They later married in May 1955 in Augsberg and moved to the US in January 1956 (according to naturalization petition filed May 1959 in San Antonio, Texas; via Ancestry.com).

Harry grew up with his parents in Sharpsburg, Maryland and he graduated from Boonsboro High School in 1965 where he met his girlfriend Diana Gatrell; she turned 16 years old in December 1967. After graduation, he worked for State Farm insurance until he was drafter into service on June 1, 1967. He trained at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and after a short reassignment to Fort Knox, Kentucky deployed to Vietnam on October 22, 1967 with the Toop A (originally Troop C for the first week in country), 3rd Squadron, 5th US Cavalry "Black Knights" of the 9th Infantry Division. He served as an armor reconnaissance specialist.

Harry Ecton died as a result of wounds he received from small arms fire during a firefight in the Biên Hòa province of South Vietnam near Saigon on January 31, 1968, just over three months in country. He was interred at Boonsboro Cemetery in Maryland and is represented on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC on Panel 36E, Line 7. His parents never had any other children; according to the donor, his mother Brigitte never recovered from her loss.