Marine Master Sgt. William H. Cox and Marine First Sgt. James ‘Hollie’ Hollingsworth first met as Privates, taking cover from rockets and shells raining all around them in a bunker in the Marble Mountains of Vietnam in 1968.

They made a pact: “If we survived this war, we will  contact each other on every New Year’s eve“.

They did that every New Year for the next five decades.

In January 2017, 83-year-old Cox made the trip from his home in South Carolina to say goodbye to his dying friend, Hollingsworth, 80, in Georgia. That day he made a final promise to his Vietnam buddy – to stand guard over his coffin and deliver the eulogy at his funeral.

In October 2017, Hollingsworth passed away and keeping his word, the 83-year-old Cox put on his blue Marines’ uniform and turned up at his buddy’s funeral service on October 20, without the cane that the 83-year-old normally used. He stood without his cane during his vigil at the casket and at the funeral.’

They both were door gunners with a Marine Helicopter Squadron and flew many combat missions together. At the end of each mission, they had a saying, which Cox repeated at the end of Hollingsworth’s eulogy: “Hollie, you keep ‘em flying, and I’ll keep ‘em firing.”