KEEPER of the FLAME

His best friend died a hero's death in Vietnam. Six decades later, he won't let us forget.

- BY Tom Hallman Jr.

IT'S LATE IN the evening, and David | Nelson. He knows his wife thinks he's Nelson finds himself in a familiar spot: at a desk in his home in Houston, typing yet another letter to yet another publication about an old friend, Lee Roy Herron, who died in some godforsaken piece of jungle in Vietnam.

It had not gone well the last time the two men spoke. For decades after that, Nelson had not thought much about the man he'd once called his best friend. He'd been angry with Lee Roy, believing that his death was foolish, as he should never have been in combat.

But now, at age 80 and armed with new facts, Nelson has been on a mission to clear his conscience and set the record straight about Lee Roy Herron's last minutes. For the past 25 years, he has written and sent more than 2,000 letters, emails, story pitches and follow-ups enough words to fill several novels to reporters and editors at various newspapers and magazines, including this one.

"Obsession is a good word," admits gone overboard about a man who died 56 years ago.

"I wouldn't say she's jealous," he said. "She just doesn't want me spending a whole lot of time writing letters. She wants me to watch a TV program with her."

Nelson struggles to find the words to explain the meaning behind this long odyssey of his. It's easier for him to explain the nuances of a legal brief than to explore the depths of his soul.

"I don't know," he finally says. "I've never been able to piece it all together."

Perhaps it's because Nelson fails to recognize that this is not only Herron's story. It's his too.

DAVID NELSON AND LEE ROY HERRON met in grade school and were known around school as friendly competitors, each pushing the other to do better.