THE WALL OF FACES

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. We should be forever thankful for the sacrifices of you and so many others to ensure the freedoms we so often take for granted.

Operation Circle Pines was a 25th Infantry search and destroy operation through the Filhol Rubber Plantation in Binh Duong Province, RVN, west of the Saigon River and about eighteen miles west of the capital of Saigon. Circle Pines began on the morning of March 29, 1966. Over the next ten days, four battalions combed their assigned sectors, hoping to push the Viet Cong up against U.S. blocking forces. Although the Americans found and destroyed enemy supplies, the Viet Cong decided in general not to fight. The one exception was an enemy attack on April 5th against a company-sized overnight position about nine miles north of Cu Chi. Artillery helped beat back the assault, but when reinforcements arrived within the hour, the Viet Cong were gone. Two days later, Circle Pines came to a close. In the ten days of searching and skirmishing, the Americans killed 170 enemy (by body count) at a cost of 30 dead and 195 wounded. One of those losses occurred April 2nd as B Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, was clearing an occupied village in the Ho Bo Woods area. The company sustained unrelenting harassment as they probed the hamlet, being sniped at throughout day. While exiting a hooch during the searching, one of the platoon’s radiomen was hit in the head by a sniper’s round. SP4 Allen L. Higginbothan had already expired when placed on the medivac helicopter. That night, the company dug in around the village in an attempt to intercept enemy combatants returning to their families. The following morning, the sniper reportedly struck again in a very personal way, firing on a GI as he relieved himself. Believing the enemy marksman’s intended target was the trooper’s private parts, he only succeeded in wounding him in the wrist. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “Combat Operations: Stemming the Tide, May 1965 to October 1966” by John Carland; also, information provided by Clark Richie (December 2021)]

Allen was the third-youngest of twelve brothers and sisters. His headstone and family spell his last name as Higginbotham (with an 'm' rather than an 'n'). Unfortunately, when compiling the names to be included on The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, his name was spelled Higginbothan by the volunteers based on the DoD records that match.

Dear Sp4 Allen Higginbothan, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Memorial Day just passed when we honor and remember you. Please watch over the USA, it still needs your courage. Rest in peace with the angels.