THE WALL OF FACES

On the remembrance of your 69th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

Sergeant Richard Dean Covert Jr., Served with Company A, 7th Engineer Battalion, 5th Infantry Division.

Dear Sgt Richard Covert,
Thank you for you service as a Combat Engineer. Your 47th anniversary is next week, sigh. 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.

Operation Lam Son 719 was a South Vietnamese army push into Laos between February 8th and March 25th, 1971, to disrupt supply buildups of the North Vietnamese Army there. The United States provided logistical, aerial, and artillery support to the operation, but its ground forces were prohibited by law from entering Laotian territory. On February 14, 1971, SGT Richard D. Covert Jr., SP5 Paul G. Bright, PFC Ronald C. Ruff, and SP4 Stephen H. Warner, an Army journalist, were riding in an M113 armored personnel carrier (APC) in support of the operation near the east slope Hill 558, about three miles northwest of Khe Sanh Airfield in Quang Tri Province, RVN. Their APC was headed to a wooded area from where small arms gunfire was being received when the track was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. The attack killed Covert, Ruff, and Warner, and critically injured Bright. He was evacuated to a U.S. military hospital where he expired on March 2, 1971. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by John Pecoraro]

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