THE WALL OF FACES

Specialist Four Robert Dean Frost, Served with the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 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….

bob was 3 years older than me. I wasn't there till 1972, the difference was I got to come home. Rest in peace cuz. Always remember and honor you. I ride with the PGR and always visit you when we do a funeral for a fellow veteran in Duncan. Rest in peace brother.

The 4th Infantry Division (“Ivymen”) deployed to Vietnam in 1966 and served more than four years, conducting combat operations ranging from the western Central Highlands along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam to Qui Nhon on the South China Sea. In February 1970, as the monsoonal rains were receding, Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry began anew search and destroy operations in Binh Dinh Province. Inserted by helicopter about twenty-one miles west of Van Canh Airfield, this was a new area not previously patrolled by the company. They got off to an inauspicious start when faulty maps made it difficult to confirm their location. Back on track, the platoons moved out in different directions to search for the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). Over the next days, 2nd Platoon located a POW camp and ambushed a group of NVA along a stream in a narrow valley. The platoon linked up with the command group and headed to higher ground. They trod through defoliated jungle where they found a dead NVA, and set up a night defensive perimeter (NDP) on the ridge along a trail. The next morning, February 22nd, the company commander took a squad on a sweep of the area. Another squad remained behind to secure the NDP. The defoliation allowed long fields of vision, something the troopers were unaccustomed to. The team in the NDP failed to put men out to watch for enemy movement, and while several of them were clustered together they were hit by burst of AK-47 fire. The fire seemed to come from a single individual who unloaded an entire magazine. One man, SP4 Robert D. Frost, was hit in the right arm and neck and an RTO (radioman) took three rounds in the back. The squad returned fire; the attacker was never found. The men went to work on the wounded, placing field dressings and an IV in Frost. His neck wound made it difficult for him to breath and a medic performed an emergency tracheotomy. Trees were knocked down so a medivac hoist could reach them. While being pulled up, the RTO was hit four more times by enemy fire. He survived; however, Frost was dead on arrival to the field hospital. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Richard Buenzle (January 2021)]

Bobby, I’ve missed you every day since you left in 1969, I’ve had you tucked inside my heart. I’ll see you in Heaven??
I love you.