Eight months ago, as Tom and I were wearily but happily gathering up the gloves and bats after our last baseball game at Fort Benning, I never dreamed that in a few months Tom would be dead, and that I would be attempting to put some thoughts in writing which would do him justice in death. Eight months ago things like playing baseball seemed so important to both of us. The words "war" and "Korea" were mere nouns, their meanings remote. Now they are words which have a meaning many of us shall never forget.

As anyone who has been close to war knows, one of the most painful scars known to warfare results from the loss of close friends. For this reason, all of Tom's classmates who knew him, and all of those from contemporary classes who knew him, bear the deep hurt of Tom's passing. To know Tom was to be friends with him. To know him was to admire him, to respect him and to love him.

THOMAS GRAY HARDAWAY was born on November 22, 1926 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His mother writes that from the time he was ten years old he wanted to go to West Point. If he ever had a knack for treading upon people's toes, particularly toes of relatively senior officers, he exhausted that trait before his entrance to the Military Academy. Thereby hangs a tale. Tom's father, Brigadier General Robert M. Hardaway, USA (Retired) was in the Medical Corps and was stationed at Fitzsimons General Hospital Denver, Colorado for six years, until Tom was twelve years old. The commanding officer of the post was a good friend of the Hardaways, and Tom was involved in many little incidents with him which the CO loves to tell about to this day. Tom's mother relates:

"One Halloween, when Tom was about 10 years old, he and a group of friends were going around the post in the early evening. A number of officers and their wives were attending a dinner party, and the boys came upon the parked cars. They were soaping the car windows and Tom came to the C.O's car and put some marks on its windows. The next day the C.O. said to Tom, 'Did you soap my car windows?' Tom said 'Yes, sir.' Then the C.O. asked him why he had done it, and Tom replied, 'Well, I knew I would get the credit for doing it, so I thought I might as well get some fun out of it'."

We who knew Tom realized that he one of those people who never did anything that was really bad. His character was beyond reproach, which is something that all of us who were associated with him at West Point were very much aware of. The pattern of his character was established early in life, as the following excerpt from his mother's recent letter shows:

"One of Tom's finer traits was that he was always taking up the part of someone less fortunate than he was. He hated to see anyone's feelings hurt. When he was in about the third grade at Park Hill School, he would often talk of a particular boy who was in his room. He mentioned him so often that I finally asked who the boy was and how did they happen to be such good friends. Tom replied that he was a little negro boy, and the only negro in Park Hill School, and that many of the children would not have anything to do with him, so he thought he would take him for a friend.

"This same trait also showed on a trip we were making from New York to Panama, when Tom was about thirteen. We stopped at Port au Prince, Haiti, for a day. As we left the dock and walked up the street we were immediately followed by a few little black boys wanting to be our guides for money. Of course we didn't need all those guides, but they continued to follow. Tom had about four dollars in his wallet and intended to buy a souvenir of some kind in Haiti. But the boys kept following and Tom would give first one a dime and then another. Finally, as we were walking up the gang plank to get on the boat, Tom gave a little boy his last nickel and said, 'I've given away all my money, but gosh, they needed it worse than I did.'"

Tom was a born leader. At Box Elder High School, Brigham City, Utah he was outstanding in athletics; he habitually held important class offices; and graduated as Valedictorian of his class. He was idolized by the whole town of Brigham City, where his father commanded Bushnell General Hospital at the time. Before entering the Academy Tom attended the University of Utah for one year, and was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

His fine qualities of character and leadership labeled Tom as one of the most outstanding members of our Class. I realized what sort of a guy he was when we were both members of Coach Palone's Plebe baseball squad. One of the things that impressed me most was his constant cheerfulness. At that time, to be constantly cheerful as a dumbsmack was a good trick. Tom also played on the Plebe football team, was on the boxing team in his Yearling year, and was a member of the varsity baseball squad for two years.

The highlight of Tom's Yearling summer at Camp Buckner was the weekend he met Terry-Eleanor Katharine Selsam - of State College, Pennsylvania. Terry became Eleanor Selsam Hardaway three years later.

It was no surprise to anybody at West Point that Tom became company commander of Co. B-1 in his First Class year. His outstanding capabilities as a leader impressed all the officers and cadets who came in ontact with him at the Academy, even as they were to impress those who knew him in combat later on - only not much later on. Tom graduated in about the middle of the class, and chose the Infantry as his branch.

On June 17, 1949, Tom married Terry at State College, Pennsylvania. He was the kind of fellow who struck you as always being lucky. And deserving of the good luck he had. This certainly held true as far as his lovely wife was concerned, because in Terry he found a person entirely worthy of himself. It is a joy to observe a couple as completely and perfectly suited to each other as Tom and Terry were. As an extraordinarily happily married couple, they personified all that is best in marriage. They loved each other with an adoration which is present only in perfect marriages. The happy months they spent together while Tom was stationed at Fort Riley and Fort Benning will always be a treasured memory for Terry. Tom was a devoted, considerate, and loyal husband. These characteristics of his were always apparent - but never as obvious as when Tom wrote to Terry nearly every one of the thirty days he spent fighting in Korea, regardless of the hardships which surrounded him.

Tom landed in Korea on August 8th, 1950. He was assigned to I Company, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division and reported to his first company commander for his first actual troop duty when the company, depleted to sixty-eight men, was dug in on a 4500-5000 yard front. Even under such conditions, Tom retained his characteristic optimism and ever present cheerfulness. In the words of his company commander, Captain Floyd Gibson, of Stamford, Connecticut, "Tom had the best platoon in the company because he made it so. Every move he made or action he took, Tom had to go all the way or not at all".

The best way to relate the story of the action in which Tom was killed is to quote his citation for the Silver Star:

"Second Lieutenant Thomas G. Hardaway, 059232, Infantry, United States Army, a member of Company I, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, is awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action against the enemy near Kyongju, Korea, on September 8, 1950. During an attack by a group of heavily armed enemy troops that had infiltrated the company rear area, Lieutenant Hardaway immediately led a squad of his men to face the enemy in an attempt to stop their advance by his concentrated fire power. After deploying his men to insure the maximum effect from their fire, he attacked ahead of his men with grenades. Through his repeated grenade attacks many of the enemy were killed, and his squad successfully repulsed the hostile attack. During this gallant action, Lieutenant Hardaway was killed. His gallantry and unhesitant devotion to duty reflect the greatest credit upon himself and the United States Infantry..."

Quotations from several of the letters Terry received from men who fought beside Tom in I Company show how the same warm feeling, admiration and respect Tom commanded at West Point were evident in combat. Captain Gibson wrote further, "...Tom was such an outstanding officer, and I was so very fond of him. A commander, even a small minor one as myself, is not supposed to have favorites, but unfortunately the military books by which our lives are governed failed to consider personalities and the heart".

Harry Maihafer, one of our classmates, was another platoon leader in I Company. Some quotations from the letter he wrote Terry shortly after Tom's death are appropriate: "... I have some small knowledge of how great your loss really is, and I too share that feeling of loss with you, as do the men who served in Tom's platoon... There have been many tributes paid to Tom. Perhaps the finest was by his platoon sergeant, a hardened veteran of many campaigns, who told me that he had actually grown to love Tom, and that he was the 'best damned officer' he'd ever seen".

All of us who knew Tom share with General and Mrs. Hardaway, with Tom's brother, Lt. Col. Robert M. Hardaway, Jr. and especially with Terry, the indescribable grief which they have experienced. If we as a clan could say anything to them that would help, we could not express our feelings any better than Harry Maihafer did at the close of his letter to Terry. "Please have courage now, as Tom would want you to have, and try to let your grief heal quickly. Don't ever forget that Tom led a wonderful life, one of which you can always be proud. He died a hero, and died after having lived a life which had a meaning. Very few of us will ever have that said of us...".

Perhaps it is most fitting to close this memorial article with a thought which Tom's mother wrote: "We know that this world is a better place because he lived in it, and heaven shines a little brighter because he is there

T.W.S., Jr.

Personal Eulogy