THE WALL OF FACES

Specialist Four Robert Wesley Cooper, Served with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam
And for a brief moment its glory
and beauty belong to our world
But then it flies again
And though we wish it could have stayed...
We feel lucky to have seen it.

On December 16, 1967, 1st and 2nd Platoons of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor were returning to their base camp at Cu Chi following an operation in the Iron Triangle area north of Saigon in Binh Duong Province, RVN. Personnel, equipment, and vehicles were queuing up on the Saigon River to ferry across on barges. The landing area on the west side of the river had not gone unnoticed by the local Viet Cong, and in an example of extraordinary resourcefulness and deadly initiative, a 250 lb. unexploded bomb was placed in the ground. The device detonated when an A Company, 2/34th M48A3 Patton tank moved into position for embarkation. The enormous explosion, believed to be command-wire improvised, pushed the 53-ton tank forward into the water and killed three crewmen. SP5 David R. Gifford and SP4 James C. Houghton had just dismounted the tank and were watching it get loaded. Few discernable remains of the two men were located, and they were placed in a missing status. Graves Registration personnel were later able to collect sufficient material to identify Gifford, and he was listed as recovered on December 26th. Several days after the incident, soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division moving through the area located remains that were correlated to Houghton, and his missing status was also changed to recovered on the 27th. The third man lost, SP4 Robert W. Cooper, was sitting on top of the turret right over the gun tube when the blast occurred. He was critically injured after being hit in the head by a large piece of debris thrown by the explosion. Witnesses at first thought he had only been knocked out as the wound left no mark on him; however, he died six days later in a military hospital. The disabled tank was pulled from the water by a tracked recovery vehicle equipped with a cable winch. It was pushed onto the barge and ferried across the river, and later towed to Cu Chi to the 5th Mechanized’s motor pool for repair. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by John Geary and Donald J. Cizmar (May 2021)]

Dear Sp4 Robert Cooper,
Thank you for your service as an Armor Crewman. It is so important for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

RIP Robert! Thank you for your sacrifice for our great United States of America. You are not forgotten.