Selfless Giving - Vietnam veteran Tom Ward dedicated a lifetime to service

Thomas Alan "Tom" Ward, a Jefferson City native and U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, devoted much of his life to serving others. After returning home from Southeast Asia, he built a successful engineering career, remained active in the veteran community, and carried with him the lessons of teamwork and selfless service learned during wartime. Ward passed away on June 1, 2026, at the age of 78. Courtesy of Shawn C. Johnson.

When I interviewed Thomas Alan "Tom" Ward more than a decade ago, he spoke less about himself than about the people around him. That's just one of the selfless actions that defined him. 

Whether discussing fellow sailors serving in Vietnam, veterans helping veterans through community organizations, or the value of teamwork in difficult circumstances, Ward consistently returned to a simple theme: service to others mattered.

Ward, a Jefferson City resident and U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, passed away on June 1, 2026, at the age of 78 following a brief battle with cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure during his military service. While he spent much of his life working as an engineer and supporting fellow veterans, his experiences with the military in Southeast Asia helped shape the values that guided him for decades afterward.

Born Nov. 24, 1947, Ward graduated from Helias High School in 1965. Like many young men of his generation, he recognized that military service was likely in his future as the Vietnam War escalated. Attending Linn Technical College for a year after high school, Ward recalled deciding to take a proactive approach rather than wait for the draft.

"The Navy recruiter told me I could get a job in aviation electronics, which is what I was interested in," Ward said during a 2012 interview. 

Ward enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the summer of 1966 and completed recruit training at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, in December of that year. After a brief leave at home, he returned to Great Lakes to attend engineman's school.

"It was basically training to become a diesel mechanic," Ward laughed. "They promise you one thing, but then put you where they want you."
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Following his training, Ward received orders to report to the USS Proteus (AS-19), a submarine tender stationed in Guam. The Proteus served a critical role during the Cold War era. Rather than engaging directly in combat, submarine tenders provided maintenance, repairs, supplies and logistical support to submarines operating thousands of miles from home ports. Their work ensured the Navy's undersea fleet remained operational throughout the Pacific.

"I didn't work with any of the subs," Ward explained. "I was working in the engine room."

For approximately 18 months, he served aboard the vessel before volunteering for duty in Vietnam. 

By 1969, American military involvement in Southeast Asia had entered a difficult phase. While large-scale troop deployments continued, increasing attention was focused on securing rivers and waterways that served as transportation corridors for both friendly and enemy forces.

After receiving specialized training in Coronado, California, that included jungle warfare and survival instruction, Ward arrived in Vietnam in April 1969. He was assigned to a naval group centered around YRBM-16, a self-propelled repair and maintenance barge operating in the Mekong Delta region. The floating facility supported small craft and helicopter operations in an area where waterways often served as highways through dense jungle terrain.

The assignment placed Ward within the Navy's "brown-water navy" — the nickname given to naval forces conducting operations on Vietnam's inland rivers and canals. Unlike the large warships operating offshore in the South China Sea, brown-water sailors worked in narrow waterways where enemy attacks could come from either riverbank, beneath the water's surface or from hidden positions within the surrounding vegetation.

Ward's unit was stationed near the Cambodian border along the Bassac River, one of the principal branches of the Mekong River system.

"It was as far south as you could go," he recalled.

The region presented numerous challenges. Enemy forces frequently attempted to disrupt river traffic by deploying floating mines, conducting ambushes or using swimmers to attach explosives to vessels anchored at night. Ward occasionally served aboard small welded-steel landing craft known as "Mike boats." These vessels transported ammunition, fuel and supplies to remote firebases throughout the region.

Every few weeks, he would participate in missions designed to keep isolated American and South Vietnamese positions supplied. The boats also employed specialized mine-sweeping equipment intended to detect or neutralize floating explosives before they could damage friendly vessels. 

Though still a relatively young sailor, Ward found himself sharing responsibilities essential to the safety of the entire unit. One of his most memorable duties involved overnight security watches.

"We were constantly throwing concussion grenades in the water," he said. "If swimmers were out there, they'd float to the top."

The tension of those nighttime watches reflected the realities of river warfare in Vietnam, where dangers often emerged without warning and where vigilance could mean the difference between life and death.

Not all of Ward's assignments involved combat-related operations. Among the experiences he remembered most positively were missions conducted as part of the Medical Civic Action Program, commonly known as MEDCAP. The program sought to provide medical treatment to Vietnamese civilians living in remote villages while fostering goodwill between local populations and allied military forces.

During these missions, doctors and hospital corpsmen would travel into rural communities to treat illnesses, injuries and other medical conditions among local residents. Ward's role was typically to help provide security.

"We would go into villages with a couple of doctors and some corpsmen and provide medical care to the civilians," he explained.

Photographs from the period show the young sailor standing among Vietnamese children while carrying a World War II-era M3 submachine gun commonly known as a "grease gun." The image captures a moment that reflected the complex nature of his military service in Vietnam, which was part combat, part humanitarian assistance and always unpredictable.

After completing his combat tour, Ward returned to the United States in 1970 and was honorably discharged as a Petty Officer Second Class. Like many veterans of that era, he faced the challenge of transitioning from military service back to civilian life. Fortunately, he approached that task with the same determination that had carried him through his years in uniform.

Returning to central Missouri, Ward resumed his education at Linn Technical College, earning an associate degree in aviation technology in 1972. That same year, he married his longtime fiancée, Evelyn Beth "Eve" Hunger. The couple would spend more than five decades together while building a family and a life rooted in service and hard work.

Ward joined Westinghouse in Jefferson City and simultaneously pursued additional education through night classes at Lincoln University. In 1977, he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical technology and advanced into engineering positions with the company, which later became ABB.
Over the course of a distinguished career, he rose to become a senior project engineer before eventually retiring. Even after retirement, Ward remained committed to helping others.

For decades, he maintained close ties with fellow veterans and devoted countless hours supporting causes important to the veteran community. Yet despite his many accomplishments, Ward often pointed back to the lessons he learned during his time in Vietnam.

"The time in Vietnam taught me the value of good friends and teamwork," he said. 

​When reflecting on the dangers he and his fellow sailors faced on the rivers of South Vietnam, he recognized those lessons were not abstract concepts but rather matters of survival.

"And considering the conditions we were in back then," he continued, "it was important that you had people with you that you could count on—that you knew would back you up if needed."

The experiences helped forge lifelong friendships and a deep appreciation for selfless service.

"These were stressful situations that brought out the best in people," Ward said.

Today, those words serve as an appropriate reflection on his own life. Whether serving aboard a submarine tender in Guam, patrolling the waterways of Vietnam, building a successful engineering career, or helping fellow veterans in the years that followed, Tom Ward consistently demonstrated the values he admired in others.

His story was never simply about military service. It was about teamwork, friendship, duty and a lifelong commitment to helping those around him. Those who knew him would likely agree that he spent his life doing exactly what he valued most: giving selflessly of himself. 

Jeremy P. Ämick is a regional author, historian and owner of Moreau Press, LLC. 

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Tom Ward poses with children in a South Vietnamese village during a Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAP) mission in 1969. Armed with an M3 "grease gun" submachine gun, Ward helped provide security for Navy doctors and corpsmen delivering medical care to civilians in the Mekong Delta region near the Cambodian border. Courtesy of Tom Ward.