THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever…..

At least we wrote back and forth while you were still in country. I served also, some years later and am proud to share that with you. You had told me you were coming to meet me when you got home - I am so sorry to have to miss that. You were always so kind in your letters. God grant you peace.

I served with Ben at Fort Bragg, NC as a Special Forces Medic. We were assigned to the 3rd Ban 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division to deploy to Vietnam. The night Ben was killed he was assigned to A Company as a platoon medic and they were in a blocking position outside a village called AP Trung Dau. Alpha Company was deployed across a large stretch of rice paddy. Unknown to them, there was an entire Regiment of NVA inside the village. The NVA made their escape from the village by pushing woman and children before them as a shield and they over ran the company killing 33 American soldiers in a short, but fierce firefight. I was with The Battalion Recon Team and we were located as a security force in a position flanking A Company. We broke from our positions and ran across the rice paddy to assist A Company but the firefight was over when we got there. Killed that night were Captain Bruce Jenkins and Senior Aideman Ken Anderson along with the 31 others who gave their all that September 5th night in 1968.

Dear Sgt Benjamin Dawkins,
Thank you for your service as a Medical NCO. Thank you for the lives you saved. 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.

To what might have been...