SFC (retired) William W. Knox II was the first NCOIC of the US Army Sniper school at Ft. Benning Ga. He died on 10 December 2021 in Idaho.
There was not much of an obituary in the local paper, just that he lived from 1943 until 2021. He deserves more, so this is my attempt.
Billy was born an “honest to God” Idaho cowboy. His family brand is the Spanish Bit. It looks like two backwards S’s with a bar between them. I’d go to his house and paw his 73 Winchesters, and other family guns. “That one’s killed it’s man” Billy would comment.
Billy was the only guy I ever met who did divorce intelligently. Back in the day, when you got divorced you paid alimony until your ex-wife remarried or died. It took a real dope to remarry and kill the cash cow, so you paid your ex-wife until she died. Not Bill. He paid her off with one lump sum, then he was done dealing with her. She was free to remarry. Smart, better to pay the banker for 5 years, than her for life. Billy never remarried, but was often in the company of an attractive woman. He was a pretty smooth talker.
While stationed at Ft. Benning, Billy was tasked with forming the U.S. Army Sniper School from scratch. This was an awesome undertaking, and Billy was the man for the job. Ft. Benning is not only the Infantry’s school house but also the home of the Army’s rifle team and some of the world’s most famous riflemen. The early classes were taught by the Army’s best riflemen; Billy was never one to do it half-way. Classes started 11 July 1987, and since then Army Snipers have put down a lot of bad men.
While stationed at Ft. Benning, Billy also started prepping for retirement. He told me, “those guys out west have never seen an alligator. I think they’d pay to see one”, and a plan was born. He designed a stainless-steel trailer, where he could sleep upstairs, and Ally the Gator would be down stairs. Never one to go off halfcocked, he did his homework by studying how to care for an alligator, what diseases they were susceptible to, etc. What worried me was he planned it all around a 14-foot gator. Weem’s pond on Ft. Benning had a 14-foot gator in it, and I was afraid Billy would ask me to help him steal it. I know nothing of wrangling gators, but I’d have been there with a rope and waders if he had asked. I needed not have worried. He bought one somewhere, took it out west and became a Carnie. He would send me T-shirts and ball caps with teeth marks across them and blood streaming down advertising Ally the Gator. He had a blast until a heart problem slowed him down.
He went back to Idaho and moved to the end of the road, where he spent his last years with his rifles and his dogs. He kept his eye on the sniper world, made trips back to Ft. Benning, and stayed in contact with old friends. I’d get an E-mail with the subject line of THAT’S BULLSHIT!! and I knew it was a video by a know nothing wanna-be about sniping. Billy took it personally.
They buried SFC William W. Knox II on the 16th of December. Don’t send flowers. Fill your glass with some fine scotch and toast the man who brought sniping back to the U.S. Army. Then fill it again for the men that he trained either directly or indirectly who have as Billy’s old 73, “killed their man”.
).