Carl E. Anderson, Jr. '63

Carl's sister may have been responding to an email I sent her months ago asking about information about Carl Anderson.  I obtained information from other sources and have written up the obituary for the In Memory section of our eBook.  Carl was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. After law school, he volunteered.  He didn't pass his first physical, but wanted to serve, so at his own expense had some tests rerun, passed them, and was able to enlist.  He didn't die in Vietnam, but developed cancer and died at Walter Reed on September 15, 1970.  He was the first death amongst our class.  He is buried at Arlington.  There was speculation that he got cancer after spraying Agent Orange, but that was speculation, so I didn't include it in the obit.  

Neale Adams
2/17/13

I confess that I do not remember Carl at all well.  Ours was, I believe, but stand to be corrected, in many respects, but not all, a pre-Vietnam generation (in the sense of student generations that are about 4 years in length rather than the 20 years employed by demographers).  We mostly went on directly to graduate school largely because of the draft, for many of us this was sufficient.  For some it was not, but by that time, many of our classmates took well-thought-out diversionary tactics.  I recall that Jim Tobin said to a close friend of mine and me that after we had completed our PhD degrees with deferments in 1967 we should volunteer.  I did not, but the memory remains with me.  It is noteworthy that Carl served and died in this war with which so many of us did not have much direct or even particularly indirect contact.

Ted Truman
2/17/13

I recall Carl with pleasure, a capable and wry contrarian, humorous, shy, intelligent, and cynical.  I was utterly unsurprised that this genuinely conservative fellow would volunteer to fight in Viet Nam (in what I considered an awful imperial venture on the part of a US desperately inimical to and desirous of "containing" the Chinese), and I remember being shocked down to my shoelaces at the reports of his death – I may be wrong, but I think he was shot down in Viet Nam and died later from the effects.  He was my first real friend to perish as a result of that conflict.   In solidarity,

Wythe Holt
2/17/13

Carl lived down the hall freshman year at Stearns hall. I recall him as someone who had the knack of getting good grades without putting in a lot of time.  This proved unfortunate for my roommate who found it more fun to hang out with Carl than hit the books, and was asked to leave at the end of the first semester.

Bruce Thompson
2/18/13

I too remember Carl as a real humble guy, a catcher - member of Beta.  I often thought of him during my 2-years with the Army @ Fort Meade (I never went to Viet Nam). Why do we go to war?  Who will ever know?  Carl's service was support for a cause, though, and I honor his commitment.  I and many others were instead drafted and served ( I and many other Amherst docs) were enrolled in the Berry-Plan. Carl will always be remembered. and, Bob, I'd hope you could send these comments on to Carl's sister with our gratitude.

Bill Amend
2/18/13