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Maj. John Alexander Hottell III
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Maj. John Hottell III
30 Years Later, Obituary Written By Young Officer A Year Before His Death Inspires Readers
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
In a November 1997 TIME Magazine piece about the West Point Cemetery, writer Jamie Malanowski describes the obituary that Maj. Alexander Hottell III, U.S. Military Academy Class of 1964, wrote for himself. Hottell, killed in 1970 and buried at West Point, had sent his sealed obituary to his wife in 1969. "I deny that I died for anything -- not my country, not my Army, not my fellow man," Hottell wrote. "I lived for these things, and the manner in which I chose to do it involved the very real chance that I would die."
Many people read those words and took them to heart. Hottell's obituary has been part of numerous sermons and inspired scores of later cadets, and crumpled many a handkerchief. Hottell's curricula vita itself is inspiring: 10th in his class, the young lieutenant became a Rhodes scholar in 1965 before assignment to Vietnam as commander of Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). In his obituary, he mentions accomplishments as diverse as climbing Mount Fuji, earning his master's degree, winning the British national diving championship, and making 30 parachute jumps.
Hottell wrote: "I have experienced all these things because I was in the Army and because I was an Army brat. The Army is my life, it is such a part of what I was that what happened is the logical outcome of the life I loved … I lived a full life in the Army, and it has exacted the price."
That price, whether "only just" in Hottell's words or tragic, came a scant year after he penned these words. On July 7, 1970, Hottell then a CPT and aide to 1st Cavalry Division Gen. George Casey, was killed along with Casey and five other members of his staff in a helicopter crash over Laos. The group was en route to visit and give medals to wounded Skytroopers. Hottell, 27, died in service to the Army he loved: "Thanks to it I have lived an entire lifetime in 26 years."
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