THE WALL OF FACES

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

SPECIALIST 5

JAMES GABRIEL JR.


served with the

SPECIAL FORCES


Personnel in Incident:


SPECIALIST 5

JAMES GABRIEL JR.

( remains recovered )


STAFF SERGEANT

WAYNE ELLSWORTH MARCHAND

( remains recovered )


SERGEANT FIRST CLASS

FRANCIS QUINN

( released POW )


SERGEANT

GEORGE E. GROOM

( released POW )


May 1997


Although the Combined Action Combat Casualty file lists James Gabriel Jr. as having died from a gunshot or small arms fire after serving 4 years in the Army - there is much more to this story ...

The book "Pacific Stars and Stripes, VIETNAM Front Pages" published in 1986 states:

Five Star Edition

Wednesday 11 April 1962

Volumn 18, No. 100


HOW U.S. SOLDIERS DIED


TOO WOUNDED TO WALK

TWO ARE SLAIN BY VC GUERILLAS

Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam (AP) --

Communist guerrillas killed two captured United States Army sergeants because they were too badly wounded to walk any farther, the survivors of a jungle ambush reported Wednesday.

The American's arms had been bound behind them.

Vietnamese patrols and air forces were still searching the jungle area 45 miles east of the Laos frontier for two other American army sergeants who were captured in the attack on a bivouac Sunday.

The U.S. Army identified the slain soldiers as Staff Sergeant Wayne Ellsworth Marchand of Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and Specialist 5 James Gabriel Jr. of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The two missing men are Sergeant First Class Francis Quinn of Niagara Falls, New York and Sergeant George E. Groom of Stewartsville, Missouri.

All four soldiers were members of an Army Special Forces unit which specializes in anti-querrilla warfare and were engaged in training a village self-defense group.

Survivors told United States authorities the two slain Americans were seriously wounded in the attack by Viet Cong guerrillas.





YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

NOR SHALL YOU EVER BE

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 sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Mary Frye – 1932

James is buried at Nat Mem Cem of the Pacific.

Hi! I am writing this in order to thank you for the sacrifice you made to our country. I know how hard it must have been and I know that many people could not have done what you did. You definitely were a courageous person. I know that you are greatly missed, but you will never be forgotten. I am saying this to you from everyone in Gridley, Illinois. R.I.P Crystal Alvey

Gridley High School Posting Project