THE WALL OF FACES

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'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.

Sergeant Antonio Vargas Garcia, Served with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Dear Sgt Antonio Garcia,
Thank you for your service as an Airborne Qualified Infantryman. Today is Election Day. It has been too long, and it's about time for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

On August 10, 1968, a USAF F-100 fighter-bomber accidently strafed American troops in the A Shau Valley during a tactical air strike, killing eight men and wounding 50 with rockets and cannon fire. The jet was providing air support for units of the 1st Brigade, 101st Air Cavalry Division, during Operation Somerset Plain/Lam Son-246 when it fired its cannon and four rocket rounds in the vicinity of the American unit near Ta Bat in Thua Thien Province, RVN, an abandoned outpost 375 miles northeast of Saigon in an effort to disrupt communist supply lines and infiltration from Laos. Contact had been light during the operation and the accidental strafing caused more casualties than scattered encounters with the enemy during the first four days of the mission. The eight American fatalities included PFC Daniel L. Ault, SGT Antonio V. Garcia, PFC Roger Hulsey, PFC Samuel R. James II, PFC John J. Matarazzi Jr., PFC Steven M. Schlosser, PFC Kurt P. Stephenson, and SP4 Edward Stewart. Ault, Hulsey, James, Matarazzi, Schlosser, and Stephenson were posthumously promoted to corporal after the incident; Stewart was promoted to sergeant. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “Yanks Strafed By Own Plane.” Chicago Times, August 11, 1968]

Thank you Sergeant Garcia for your leadership and exemplary courage under fire.