I lost a friend the other day, a good one, the kind that only comes around, at best, once in a lifetime. And, as it turns out, even though you never knew him, you lost a friend too. If you've taken the trouble to find this website, it means you’re part of the modest but proud little group of people who matter to me, and have mattered to me for many years now, owing in part to our mutual involvement to Tour of Duty. You matter to me for more reasons than just that, I want you to know, but for now that will just have to do.
But if you cared about the show, I know you cared about Zeke. And if you cared about Zeke, you also cared about Sergeant Sam Stanley, whether you knew it or not, because Sergeant Stanley, more than anybody else in the whole wide world, was the man that Terence Knox, the actor, early in the process of creating the character Zeke, was watching and imitating, and pretending to be. Was stealing actually, and to this day I'm not sure whether he knew it or not.
Sergeant Sam Stanley was our technical advisor on Tour of Duty, Vietnam Vet, beloved by the men he led in actual combat and by the actors on Tour of Duty he led in their earnest make believe war in front of the camera - Sergeant Sam Stanley died suddenly, abruptly, shockingly, and utterly without warning of a heart attack, while held in the arms of the beautiful woman to whom he first proposed marriage when she was 8 years old and he was 9.
My loss is great, but her loss, and that of his daughter, Tania, whom he worshipped and who worshipped him, is unimaginable.
I'm telling you this, here on the site, because you matter to me, and because I know you'd want to know.
Sergeant Stanley was a man among men, and he gave me, gave us all, the guy we came to know as Zeke, and he also gave me his trust, approval and friendship at a time when it was very nearly the most important thing in my life. Who knows, perhaps still is.
But farewell old buddy, I'll be thinking about you. Terry.
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