Spec. 4 Todd Louis Wood

Nov. 3, 1949 - Jan. 9, 1969

Chico

Todd Wood turned 19 just two months before he was killed on a long range patrol in central Vietnam. A 1967 graduate of Chico Senior High who worked for his uncle at Park Sheet Metal Works, Wood had been in Vietnam since June 1968 with the 4th Infantry.

In December 1968 Wood earned a Bronze Star for heroism when his reconnaissance team was ambushed while stalking a North Vietnamese patrol. Wood killed one of the North Vietnamese, and his team subsequently found their camp and recovered weapons and intelligence gear.

Less than a month later, his five-man patrol was helicoptered into a “hot” area, where they set an ambush and killed five North Vietnamese. Later, according to a man who was there, the patrol was sent “as bait” to attract enemy fire. As the team rounded a tree, the North Vietnamese opened fire. Wood, severely wounded in the chest, continued to man his radio. He died shortly after reaching a hospital.

Only two of the five men on that patrol lived. One of them, a sergeant now living in Florida, named two of his sons after Todd Wood and another man on the patrol. The ex-G.I. said that after nearly 20 years, a day does not go by that he does not think of his buddy and that final firefight in Vietnam.

Todd Wood received a posthumous Silver Star for his “heroism, devotion to duty and concern for his fellow soldiers.”

Chico News & Review, May 26, 1988

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