Lincoln Case

His tenure began midway through the show's third season, when he was written in as a replacement for the departed Buz Murdock (played by George Maharis).

His appearance made Route 66 the first dramatic television series to feature a recurring character who was directly involved in Vietnam.

Linc arrives in Houston on his way home after finishing a tour of duty which included an escape from a Vietnam administered POW camp.

Linc then pays a visit to his mother and relates some of his experiences in the war to her, including an incident in which a Vietnamese family sacrificed their own lives to hide him from the enemy.

Linc is still technically on leave from the army for his first several appearances, before finally making the decision to resign and become a civilian in the episode "Peace, Pity, Pardon".

However, Linc learned that head injuries combined with trauma experienced by the man during the war had caused a mental collapse, and he subsequently believed himself to be an eight-year-old boy.

At the time of his introduction to the series, Linc was estranged from his father, Thomas Case, feeling that the older man never attempted to understand him or relate to him as an individual.

In the two-part series finale of Route 66, "Where There's a Will, There's a Way," after attending a funeral in Tampa involving some complex characters, Tod got married and Linc announced his own intention to return home.

With a slightly hard edge to his robustly handsome features and lightly colored eyes, Linc is a taciturn and introverted individual, in stark contrast to his expressively emotive predecessor Buz Murdock.