In Memory

Tom Karstens

Tom Karstens

while on a training mission in South Korea Tom died in a helicopter crash. RIP Tom.



 
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05/03/14 07:00 PM #1    

Robin Riley

I remember you being tall ... and smart, and very good at debate, but then you simply dissappeared ...which is hard for a tall guy to do! How is it that someone knows that you died, but didn't say anything about it here?

[we shorter guys want to know]


05/04/14 01:02 AM #2    

Jackie Henry (D'Agosto)

Tom died in Vietnam after graduating from West Point. He was an only child.


05/06/14 11:05 PM #3    

Terrance Pardee

There is confusion here.  I found Tom's name in the West Point graduating class of 1969.  He apparently passed, as you all seem to know.  However, he is not listed as a Vietnam casualty on "THE WALL".  I've been at this long enough to know, that if his name is not among those 58,000 who died in Vietnam, he didn't die in Vietnam.


05/07/14 07:33 AM #4    

Mary Lou Klodnick (Llewellyn, Bennett)

I thought Tom died in a helicopter crash in South Korea. I think he was married also. 


05/07/14 11:44 PM #5    

Terrance Pardee

That would explain it!  If he died in a chopper crash in S. Korea the rumor transferance to Viet nam makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for the info.


05/11/14 12:27 AM #6    

Jackie Henry (D'Agosto)

Thanks Terry, I decided to research this.  Captain Karstens was killed along with two others on Feb 22, 1973 approx 10 miles from Uijongbu Korea


05/19/15 02:08 AM #7    

Michael Holman

Sorry to all that I am late to this thread.  Tom became and was one of my best friends when I was a newcomer to Renton.  Our fiendship began in our Junior year when I came to Renton and continued to build over the next two years until he left to start classes at West Point in the summer of 1965.  He did graduate in 1969, and after graduation leave and a few years he was sent to South Korea, not Viet Nam.  But depsite being sent to a place that had no ongoing battles tragedy did strike.  During a routine training mission the helicopter Tom was in crashed, and Tom, like so many others, was killed in that accident.  He died honorably, serving his country as he was instructed to serve.  While not in Viet Nam his death remains no less honorable, and no less tragic than the thousands who died fighting in Viet Nam.   In four short years he went from a Senior Cadet at West Point to Captain.  Those of us who were lucky enough to call him friend will always remember Tom with warmth and fondness, wondering - what if?  By now I suspect he would have been a retired General.


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