A Tribute:  Macdonald Brooke Halsey

         

2LT - O1 - Army - Reserve 24 years old His tour of duty began on Jun 14, 1969 Casualty was on Jul 21, 1969 in SOUTH VIETNAM Hostile, died of wounds. GROUND CASUALTY  OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICE    Panel 20W - - Line 30Macdonald Brooke Halsey was born on October 25, 1944, in Lewes, DE. His home of record is Summit, NJ. While his full name was Macdonald Brooke Halsey, named after his father, everyone called him by his middle name, Brooke. He lived in Ojai, California, where he attended The Thacher School. He played tennis and soccer and was part of the debate team. He graduated in 1962. That same year, the yearbook, El Archivero, was dedicated to his father, Macdonald Halsey who served as a teacher and administrator at the school for 22 years. Brooke moved to Washington, DC, in 1962 and later moved to Summit, NJ, in 1965 with his parents, Anne and Macdonald Halsey, his brother, Woodruff W. II, and his sister, Comfort. He enrolled in Princeton University in 1962 and graduated with high honors in 1966. Brooke was a member of the Press Club and the Colonial Club. His senior thesis was entitled Ivy Lee and Russia. After graduation, Brooke taught American history as a civilian for one year at the American Community School, Beirut, Lebanon, and was on the Job Corps staff at Jersey City. Brooke intended to go to law school after his Vietnam service. Halsey enlisted into the US Army in 1968 where he attained the rank of Second Lieutenant (2LT). He underwent training at Fort Benning, GA, became an instructor in a Ranger training battalion, was sent to Panama for jungle warfare training, and received his officer’s commission in November 1968. Halsey, a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, near Saigon, had been on missions at the Phu Cuong Bridge. He was killed in action on July 21, 1969, when he stepped on an enemy landmine. Memorial services were conducted at Princeton University Chapel and he was buried in Elizabeth, NJ. He posthumously was awarded the Purple Heart. The Thacher School remembers its alumni at the Outdoor Chapel on campus and Brooke is among those honored. Brooke’s classmates at Princeton University established a scholarship in his name.

  

The following information is taken from a first-person account of the action related by Sgt. Joe Tobin, Delta Company, 3rd Platoon, 3rd Squad. As I recall the lieutenant was only there two days.  I was a squad leader at the time.  The day before, the day he came out to the field, our Company Commander, Capt. Thomas Waldera, introduced me to him, and told me to help him out as much as I could. The incident happened early, maybe 10:00 am. We had left the wire at the Phu Cuong Bridge to go on patrol.  We were traversing chest high scrub on both sides of a rather narrow hard-baked and obviously well-used trail.  The Lieutenant and RTO had gone ahead up the trail.  They were about thirty meters in front of me when the mine went off.  The RTO (radio-telephone operator) tripped a mine and the Lieutenant received a head wound.  When I got up there, the Lieutenant was alive but it didn't look good.  Both were medevaced back to Cu Chi.  We learned a few days later that he had died of his wounds.

  

If you have remembrances or photographs of Brooke that you would share with his family, please e-mail his sister, Comfort Halsey

     

 

Macdonald Brooke Halsey
All  material on this page is copyright © 2009 Kirk S. Ramsey
Last modified: April 28, 2009