THE WALL OF FACES

Specialist Four Jose Anibal Echevarria Jr., Served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

May those who served never be forgotten. Rest in peace SP4. Echevarria, I salute your brave soul. My heart goes out to you and your family.

You will forever remain in our hearts and prayers

The U.S. 4th Infantry Division deployed to Vietnam in September 1966. Part of the division’s area of responsibility was the western Central Highlands along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. It was here that the Division experienced intense combat against North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regular forces in the mountains surrounding Kontum beginning in the autumn of 1967. LZ Slack was a division firebase located ten miles southwest of Dak To city in Kotum Province. The base was surrounded by concertina wire and trip flares with fighting bunkers ringing the inside wire. There was a contingent of 81mm mortars and a battery of 105mm artillery. Three-man “Green Eye” patrols were regularly launched into the jungle around LZ Slack to intercept the NVA who frequently lobbed mortar rounds on the base. On the early evening of June 5, 1969, just as the patrols were getting dug in for the night, one of the Green Eye teams heard the distinct sound of mortar rounds leaving the tube. The team, about 100 yards from the NVA mortar crew, called in a fire mission on them. Soon mortars from Slack, along with its 105’s and 155’s from Dak To and 175’s from Kotum began blasting the area. Before the NVA team was put out of action, the mortars on Slack had taken hits, knocking some of the tubes out of action, and killing SP4 Jose A. Echevarria Jr., an infantryman from A Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. A small number of others were wounded. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Al Ballard at 1-22infantry.org]