"Ham" Hamilton played quarterback at Mumrell Dobbins Vocational High School, where he studied mechanical design before graduating in 1964. He was a draftsman at Gimpel Machine Works Inc. for two years before entering the Army in October 1965. The 21-year-old sergeant was sent to Vietnam in October 1967, and was a team leader in Company C of the 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry, Americal Division. Hamilton died in Da Nang, Quang Nam Province, on July 11, 1968, three days after his first wedding anniversary, when he was hit by fragments from an enemy booby trap. He was survived by his wife, parents, a brother and two sisters.