THE WALL OF FACES

Lance Corporal, Robert Wayne Dunn, enlisted in the Marines, in 1967. LCPL., Dunn, passed away in a military hospital in Japan, due to injuries received in Vietnam, on 22, August, 1968. His DOD., is listed as 12, September 1968, the date in Japan, while the date in Texas was actually 11, September 1968, exactly 7, years, to the day, when LCPL., Dunn lost, his entire family to Hurricane Carla, in Bastrop Bayou, Texas. LCPL., Dunn, you didn't have to answer the call, but you did, and you made the ultimate sacrifice, for you country. Marine, I salute you. On behalf of a grateful nation, Thank You! Carla, took 11, members, of one family, The lone survivor died a Marine, in Vietnam, 7, years later - to the day By RICHARD STEWART, Copyright 2005, Houston Chronicle ANGLETON. When officials around Brazoria County, think about hurricanes and the destruction they bring, they often remember the Dunn family. Eleven members, of the family were killed, on Sept., 11, 1961, when Hurricane Carla demolished the house, they were in at Bastrop Bayou, a few miles south of Angleton. Theirs was the largest single loss in the storm, that killed 46, people. Only one teenage boy survived, to tell the tale and his life was destined, to be short and end tragically, as well. Robert Dunn would talk sometimes, with his closest friends, about the terrible night that Hurricane Carla killed, his family and left him alone, in the world. 'They chopped a hole, in the roof and crawled, through and he was reaching back for his little sister's hand, but the current just carried her away,' said Wayne DuBose, now a Brazoria County, Justice of the Peace. 'He tried to hold on, but the water just took her away,' Dunn would say. Dunn was 15, when the big storm came ripping into the coast, of Texas. His family lived in a wood house, on the banks of the bayou. Deputies came by to warn the family, to leave. 'I begged Daddy to go,' Dunn told a Houston Chronicle reporter, right after the storm, 'but he wouldn't leave. He said he'd been, in storms before. So I stayed too.' Searchers later found the body of his father, R.W. 'Shorty' Dunn, 52, in a tree. Dunn's mother, Virginia Mae Dunn, 48, brothers Walter, 10, Wallace, 9 and Carl, 5 and little sister Viola Eunice, 4, were all there, when the storm came. Dunn's uncle, John J. Drvar, 54, his wife, Mabel Drvar, 45, and their sons, Floyd Ham, 14, Ted Ham, 15 and Bobby Joe Ham, 11, took refuge in the same house. All of their bodies were later found, around the wreckage. Rising water forced the family, into the home's attic, where they spent a fearful day and night, as the storm pounded the house. 'We only had a loaf of bread,' Robert Dunn told a reporter. 'My share, was two slices. Two younger children were crying from hunger, so I divided my share. I didn't feel hungry anyway,' he added. 'Then a big wave came,' he said. 'All of us started for the roof. I got up there. Two children tried to grab my hand, but something seemed to pull them away, from me. 'I saw the water come up, to my little brothers' necks and I reached down my hand to them, but the waves went right out over them and Mother and Daddy were holding hands and Mother was crying and then they were gone,' he sobbed. The youth floated on the roof, for a day and a night, before he started wading, through the storm water. He spent a night in an abandoned rowboat, he found. Finally, two days, after he'd seen, his family drown, he found help at a farmhouse. His family was buried, under two large tombstones, at the Angleton Cemetery. Under each of the 11, names, are their birth dates and the same, death date - Sept., 11, 1961. After the storm, Dunn lived with a family, in Angleton and tried hard, to be just a regular student at Angleton, High School. He and DuBose both played, the bass horn in the school band and became good friends. 'He didn't talk to much about the incident,' DuBose said. 'It was like he was trying, to put it behind him.' Dunn attended Alvin, Junior College, got a job with Houston Light and Power and got engaged. He and his fiancee, Holly Harris, would often double date, with DuBose and his girlfriend. Then he joined the U.S., Marines. 'It was like he had something to prove to himself,' Harris said. 'He didn't have to go. He volunteered,' she said. Soon, he was sent, to Vietnam. Meanwhile DuBose was drafted, into the Army and found himself in Vietnam, as well. On Aug., 22, 1968, Dunn, then a lance corporal, was horribly burned in a flash fire, of some leftover mortar charges. He was sent to a hospital in Japan, but on Sept., 12, he died. Back home in Texas, it was still Sept., 11 - seven years, to the day after his family, had perished. After DuBose, who was also wounded, returned from Vietnam he and Holly Harris fell in love and were married, for 29, years, before getting divorced, five years ago. In 1991, they and other friends raised money, to buy a marker for Dunn's grave, next, to the graves of his family. 'In memory, of a brave soldier and a kind person. You will live, in our hearts forever,' the marker says. 'I still think of him sometimes, especially around that time of year,' Harris said. 'I still have the flag, they put over his casket.' http:www.chron.comcsCDAssistory.mplmetropolitan3049027 http:www.montgomerystudio.comlonestarlsd_pg19.htm Rest in peace with the warriors.

Robert is buried at Angleton Cemetery, Angleton, TX.

It's said a man hasn't died as long as he is remembered. This prayer is a way for family, friends and fellow veterans to remember our fallen brothers.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush of
quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.