THE WALL OF FACES

Sergeant James Vincent Antolini, Served with the 1st Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam. Montani Semper Liberi !

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. We appreciate the sacrifice you, and so many others, made. Rest in eternal peace.

SP4 James V. Antolini, PFC Samuel S. Linville, and PFC Claude D. Protz were infantrymen serving with 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Their Company was a mechanized infantry unit comprised of twenty armored personnel carriers (APC’s), or “tracks” as they were known, which were used for a variety of missions including convoy duty and road security. On the morning of May 9, 1968, the company was moving out of the perimeter at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Gia Dinh Province, RVN, where they had passed the night. The troopers had had their breakfast, mounted their tracks, and were formed up in a line, headed out of the base’s secured area. Antolini, a Track Commander (TC), and Linville and others were on top of the same APC with Protz, who had just arrived as a replacement the night before, occupying the turret containing the .50 machine gun. While moving down the perimeter road, the TC directly behind their track observed an explosion occur where Antolini was sitting. The blast threw the six troopers off the vehicle causing the column to come to a halt. Medics were called forward, and the rest of the Company took up a defensive posture. Linville was found in the road behind his track; he was barely alive and expired shortly thereafter. Antolini was located in tall grass near the road; he had suffered catastrophic injuries and died instantly. Protz, his body protected inside the turret, received critical head injuries, and died at the base hospital. Ambulances began arriving and carried away the dead and wounded. None of the troopers on the track were without injury, including the driver, who suffered temporary loss of hearing. After order was restored, the APC’s began moving out again to complete their day’s mission, leaving behind the crewless track. Each of three lost soldiers received posthumous promotions, Antolini to Sergeant and Linville and Protz to Corporal. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by John Holochwost (July 2019)]

DEAR SERGEANT ANTOLINI.
THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE AS AN ARMY GRUNT. REST IN PEACE.

Dear SGT James Vincent Antolini, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter