What’s the big deal about that? I am glad you asked because now I am going to tell you. I had an e-mail exchange with Mrs. Lyon a couple of days before; a person I had never met or heard of, discussing a story for Veteran’s and Armistice Day which is celebrated November 11. I needed more information about our e-mail.

So last Sunday morning I walk into Kinney’s, there is only one person in the checkout area and that one person is about to leave when she turns toward me and asks, “Could you be Howard Riley?” “Yes.” “I’m Janet Lyon.”

You could have knocked me over with a feather … what are the odds…?

The following story appeared under the headline: “Death Awaits the Pointman” by David W. Taylor in the “Vietnam Network” magazine with portions obtained from the “Army Reporter.”

Bill and Janet at the Daytona 500 (Photo provided)

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PFC. WILLIAM “BILL” LYON

(Our local unsung hero)

“PFC [Private First Class] William “Bill” Lyon arrived at his unit, the 2nd Platoon of Alpha Company, 5th/46th Infantry Battalion, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, in early August 1970. After two months as a rifleman he saw many of the ‘old guys’ – the experienced soldiers – finishing their tours and rotating home. That’s when things started getting ‘interesting’ for Lyon.

“Lyon’s Platoon Sergeant, Chester ‘Chet’ Helms wanted Lyon to be the pointman, since he had two months experience in the bush and Helms, having had a chance to size Lyon up, liked what he saw. Lyon remembers, ‘I felt comfortable in that role, I was raised in upstate New York and spent a lot of time in the forests. At age 12 I started hunting with my father [ his father was a WWII veteran] so I had a good feel for the woods. I also had a good eye, looking for signs of game.’

“His platoon sergeant, Helms, was older, about 35 years of age, [Lyon was 20] and had been a career Marine, serving two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman and being wounded on both tours. Because of his wounds Helms was discharged from the Marine Corps so he enlisted in the Army and was eventually assigned to the Alpha’s second platoon in the 5th/46th Battalion. Initially he was a squad leader but soon became the Platoon Sergeant. His experience was recognized and valued by all.

“Helms and Lyon became a close team. Helms as platoon sergeant walked behind his pointman, Lyon. Lyon recalls, ‘I always felt that Sergeant Helms had my back, he was behind me all the time. He called me ‘Snoopy’.

“By the summer of 1970 the 5th/46th Battalion had moved in patrols further west, deep into the mountains and into Dragon Valley and the area around Ky Tra north of the valley. The rifle companies of the battalion operated for the most part, as separate entities, and, on most occasions, the platoons operated separately from the company, with squad-size patrols often the norm. It was a remarkable departure from the necessity to operate in company strength in the foreboding mountains in 1968 and early in 1969. For the battalion, it had truly become a small unit-leaders war. [Squads make up platoons, and platoons make up the company.]

“By January, 1971, Alpha’s second platoon was ranging far and wide in the mountainous terrain around Ky Tra. Lyon, as pointman, was keeping his platoon safe, but on one day in the span of thirty minutes, he would find five enemy booby-traps within 100 yards of each other.

“The platoon was heading for a night defensive position (NDP) that would allow the platoon leader to send squad size patrols to search the area. Lyon remembers, ‘We were moving down a trail and I spotted three sticks formed into a V-shape. The sticks were obviously a warning to any enemy in the area that there was a booby-trap on the trail, but I didn’t know exactly how close it was.’

“Five yards down the trail, Lyons spotted a trip-wire stretched across the trail. Connected to the wire was a mortar round covered with small stones. Then the pointman looked at the trap more closely and found two more mortar rounds concealed beneath.

“Since the platoon was headed for an NDP the platoon leader Lt. Scott O. Toups, (who would later lose a leg to a mine) decided they would by-pass the booby-trap and return later to blow it up. ‘But before we moved another 20 yards, Lyon discovered another booby-trap,’ said Toups. ‘This one was connected to an anti-tank weapon.’

“Lyon didn’t have much time to think about what to expect next because, just another twenty yards down the trail, he came upon his third booby-trap. ‘I began to get the shakes after this one,’ Lyon recalls. The platoon also was becoming unsettled. Word was passed down the line that potent mines and booby-traps were being found. David Barr, the Platoons medic thought each time a booby-trap was discovered, ‘My God, he saved someone from certain death’. After the third booby-trap was discovered, Barr’s jaw dropped, ‘My God how many can there be?’ Lyon’s sharp eye was keeping the medic from dealing with a traumatic situation.

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The situation gets worse

“Again the platoon moved around the trip wire towards its NDP, marking the location so it could return to destroy it the next day. But again, movement was halted when Lyon found another booby-trap. ‘Again I found three sticks placed in a V-shape’, he recalled. Just off the trail Lyon found another anti-tank weapon with a wire extending across the trail.

“It was just a short distance to the unit’s night position but it was enough for Lyon to find his fifth booby-trap. This time it was an artillery round casing filled with explosives. For his diligence and steadiness Lyon was awarded the Bronze Star for essentially leading his platoon through a mine field.

“Lyon would find three more booby-traps before his six-month tenure as a pointman would end. He remembers, ‘it was one of three remaining booby-traps that almost did me in. That one was the least soptiscated – a soda can filled with rocks and chopped glass and C-4 explosives.’ Lyon had actually stepped over the wire which he failed to see and miraculously did not trip the wire. With one foot over the wire and one foot behind the wire, he spotted it and froze. His platoon sergeant Chet Holmes asked, ‘why did you stop?’ Lyon replied, ‘I’m one step over a mine!’ He slowly stepped back over the wire with his lead foot and the two of them blew the booby-trap with some C-4.

“Bill never mentioned the mine incidents to any one, not even his children after the war. But the Army Reporter publication, printed by the Stars and Stripes had published the story about the incident in Vietnam and last year the Memorial Day observances in his home town, Vietnam Vets were asked to stand up front and be recognized. One of the organizers of the event had located the article and read it aloud to the crowd. His fellow townsmen were aghast with collective sentiments afterward of, ‘We never knew!’ Lyon just shook his shoulders, ‘I was only doing my job.'”

Home in Vermontville

Mr. and Mrs. Bill and Janet Lyon live in Vermontville. They have two children, Jessica and Michael. They were married in 1974; they met when he was home on leave and didn’t see each other again until he was discharged in 1971.

Bill worked at Torrington Construction, later Upstone Quarry on Route 3, until he retired in 2009.

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Lyon, his parents, were from Long Island. Bill was born in Rockville Center but knew the Adirondacks because his parents used to summer at Bing Tormey’s Cabins in Onchiota. Janet Lyon relates, “they loved the area and bought a home in Bloomingdale.”

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Yahoo stats on Vietnam

There were 58,220 killed in Vietnam, 150,000 wounded and 1,000 missing. The war went from 1955 and ended with the fall of Saigon in April 1975.