DSU Black History; Capt. Larry Potts, only Del State grad killed in Vietnam

As the bridge leading to the main entrance of Dover Air Force Base says “All Gave Some. Some Gave All.”

Capt. Larry Potts, a Delaware State College Class of 1969 graduate, gave his all as the only known Del State grad to die in the Vietnam War.

In memory of Capt. Potts, an Endowed Scholarship Fund has been established his name, by his close friend Charles “Butch” Hammond with financial support from their beloved Psi Epsilon Chapter of Omega Psi Phi.

The Capt. Charles F. Potts Memorial Endowed Scholarship is currently at $13,000 and open for additional donations.

Born in Smyrna, Del., on April 7, 1947, Larry grew up in both his native town and Milford, Del. As a fourth grader in Milford, he began what would be lifelong friendship with Butch.

That friendship continued through their teens and into their matriculation at then-Delaware State College in the mid-1960s. Larry majored in Sociology and Butch studied Elementary Education.

“Potts was very studious,” Mr. Hammond said. “You couldn’t say a bad thing about him. He was very mild mannered.”

In the course of their undergraduate journey, the two friends decided to explore the possibility of becoming U.S. Marine Corps officers after graduation. DSC did not have a ROTC Program at the time.

“We didn’t think we would get in,” said Mr. Hammond. “We found out that we could do Marine basic training in the summer of 1968 and then return to DSC to finish our degrees.”

Potts and Hammond were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant officers during the 1969 DSC Commencement Ceremony. And then they left together to go to the Marines’ Basic School (“the finishing school for 2nd Lieutenants,” Mr. Hammond said). However, the two went to different Basic School units and then went to different Artillery Training units.

As 1st Lieutenants, Potts and Hammond were somewhat reunited when they were stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and in Okinawa, Japan. “We weren’t in the same organization, but we talked with each other from time to time,” said Mr. Hammond, a 22-year Marine veteran who retired at the rank of Major.

In the spring of 1972 while serving in the 1st Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company in Okinawa, 1st Lt. Potts heard a call for a pilot and naval artillery observer to go up in an OV-10 aircraft to identify enemy Vietcong positions, and he volunteered for the mission.

“He was in an observation squadron,” said Herb Holland, who was a Basic School classmate of 1st Lt. Potts and flew in the same squadron. “His job was to observe where the enemy was and give coordinates to the artillery people, who would fire on those positions.

The date was April 7, 1972 – 1st Lt. Potts’ birthday. On that date, his plane was shot down.

“I listened to the entire shoot down on the radio because I was flying at that same time,” Mr. Holland said.

1st Lt. Potts and the pilot, Air Force 1st Lt. Bruce Walker parachuted out of the plane into the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam. Enemy Vietcong troops killed the pilot within hours after he landed on the ground. Mr. Hammond said that 1st Lt. Potts manage to maintain communication with his base of operation before his capture a couple of days after the shoot down.

Mr. Hammond had returned to the U.S. by that time and just happened to be in Smyrna, Del., when he noticed a Marine vehicle in the neighborhood that 1st Lt. Potts had lived in with his aunt and uncle Sammy and Louise Potts. Butch stopped the vehicle to try to assist the Marine in finding the location he was looking for.

It turned out that the Marine official was looking for the 1st Lt. Potts’ next of kin to inform them of the shoot down. “That’s how I found out that Larry’s plane went down,” Butch said.

From that point on, 1st Lt. Potts was classified as missing in action. While MIA in October 1973, the U.S. Marine Corps promoted Potts to Captain in absentia.

It was not until 1979 that Capt. Potts was formally declared killed in action by the U.S. Marines. With U.S. combat activities in that conflict suspended on Jan. 15, 1973, Capt. Potts was the last Marine to be declared killed in action in the Vietnam War.

The sacrifice of Capt. Potts makes the DSU motto especially poignant in his case: “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.”

Dana Shreve, another Basic School officer classmate, called both Larry and Butch “trailblazers” because there were not many officers of color in the U.S. Marines at that time. He said he was impressed with his immaculate appearance “whether in uniform or in civilian clothes, his athleticism, and his bearing.

“He had a quiet confidence about himself,” Mr. Shreve said. “He was unfazed by being a minority among a lot of white alpha males, which is what the Marines had at that time.”

Donations to the endowed scholarship fund can still be made by sending a check made payable to “DSU Foundation” with “Captain Larry F. Potts Memorial Endowed Scholarship” written in the memo line to:

Delaware State University Foundation

Claibourne D. Smith Admin Bldg., 2nd Floor

1200 N DuPont Hwy

Dover, DE 19901