THE WALL OF FACES

May those who served never be forgotten. Rest in peace SSGT. Deitz, I salute your brave soul. My heart goes out to you and your family.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from your sister Barbara is moving. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever…..

SGT Thomas M. Deitz, SGT David S. Pellew, and SP4 Eddie R. Kelley were infantrymen serving with Mike Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. On March 18, 1969, they were in the first day of a company-sized patrol in an area approximately seventy miles north of Saigon in Binh Duong Province, RVN. B Company’s platoons were dispersed, operating within a thousand yards of each other, as they searched for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units infiltrated from Cambodia. After patrolling all morning and half the afternoon, Mike Platoon settled into an open area of waist-high dry grass. Contact had recently been light, so the men relaxed as they formed up in a circle, guns facing out. The platoon leader, a lieutenant, took his radioman with Deitz, Pellew, and Kelley out on a quick patrol to reconnoiter an area for the evening’s ambush team. They moved out through the six o’clock position of the platoon’s perimeter. About thirty minutes later, they radioed that they were coming back in. As they approached the nine o’clock position of the perimeter, they surprised an M60 gunner set up on that side. He opened up, spraying the returning patrol with 7.62mm automatic weapons fire. Deitz was killed instantly after being struck in the head, and Pellew and Kelley were mortally wounded after receiving numerous hits. The lieutenant and radioman dove down in time, and neither were injured. The platoon medic quickly went to work on the two wounded men. Pellew was unconscious and required an emergency tracheotomy to keep him breathing. He was still alive when placed on the medivac helicopter about twenty minutes later. Kelley, who was hit multiple times in the body, talked to and even joked with the aidmen. Both men, however, were dead on arrival to the medical station. The shooter, in a state of shock after the incident, was removed from the field by a separate helicopter. He was reportedly transferred out of the unit and never seen again. The three lost men were memorialized a week later at a firebase during a service conducted by the Battalion chaplain. Each man received a posthumous promotion, Deitz and Pellew to Staff Sergeant, and Kelley to Sergeant. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Robert Reese (November 2021)]

Tom we miss and love you. Hope you are watching over us all. Hope you are resting in peace with, Mom, Dad, your nephew Chris, and all our other Angels. You lived such a short life, but you did it honorably. Thanks to you and every other serviceman/ woman who fights for us. Never forgotten. Always loved.

My platoon sgt. A good man. RIP Sarge