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ANDY, AS HE WAS KNOWN to his many friends, was born on 6 August 1928 in Newark, Delaware, where his father, Colonel Arthur R. Underwood, Class of 1909, was stationed. He was brought up on various Army posts until the death of his father. At this time his mother moved to San Antonio, Texas, and Andy became a staunch Texan. He attended Loomis School in Windsor, Connecticut, where he won athletic letters in wrestling and track. Upon graduation from Loomis he went to the University of Texas at Austin and joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He represented his fraternity in more than ten sports. While home on vacation from Texas University, Andy met his bride-to-be, Val.
In 1950 Andy entered the Military Academy with the Class of 1954. He was always a cheerful and helping classmate. Andy was most popular with his classmates and was also admired by the members of other classes. While at West Point, he was a member of the swimming and diving teams and won his letter in diving. He was very active in all intramural sports. Upon graduation Andy was awarded The Tunic Memorial Award for standing number one in physical aptitude in his class. It was the first year the award, which was a gold Lord Elgin watch, was presented.
June 19, 1954, saw Andy married to his faithful Val, and they headed for the Basic Infantry Officers' course followed by duty at Fort Benning, Georgia. It was while stationed at Fort Benning that the first of his two daughters, Karen, was born. After almost three years at Fort Benning, he was ordered to Iran to be an advisor to the Imperial Iranian Army. This tour was followed by a tour with the 7th Special Forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where his second daughter, Connie, was born. From Fort Bragg he attended the Career Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1962 Andy headed back to college at Indiana University, where he earned a master's degree in physical education. This tour was followed by three years at the United States Military Academy, where he was an instructor in the Department of Physical Education. Andy thoroughly enjoyed teaching the cadets. He organized the first course in scuba diving and wrote the manuals and tests for the course. He then went to Vietnam from West Point. While on this tour he was terribly wounded and all who knew him admired the way he overcame his injuries and made an unbelievable complete recovery.
In July of 1967, after graduating from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Val, Andy, and the two girls reported to Fort Belvoir for a three-year tour with the Combat Developments Command. It was from there that he went off to his final tour in Vietnam. On 5 June 1972 Andy was on an airplane which crashed in the Central Highlands. There were no survivors of the crash.
We who knew Andy will miss him. His quick wit, cheerful smile, and consideration of others made him a most unusual person. A finer individual would be hard to find. He was not only well liked by his peers, but his superior officers were always most impressed with his willingness to work, his superior performance of any duty assigned, and by his ever-cheerful outlook on life. The world and his family and friends are richer for having known Andy and certainly the poorer for his loss.
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