THE WALL OF FACES

Never forget.

Semper Fi, Marine

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. It remains my fervent hope you will be returned home after the passage of so many years.

At 7:30 AM on May 26, 1968, a reconnaissance team from 1st Platoon, B Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, call sign Panama Hat, departed the helicopter pad at LZ Finch at Camp Reasoner near Da Nang in Quang Nam Province, RVN, for a planned four-day operation. The team was composed of seven Marines and one Navy corpsman. Their mission was to establish a roving observation post and conduct reconnaissance and surveillance to detect possible Viet Cong (VC) troop movement in the Thuong Duc and Cai River Valley areas. A little after noon on the second day, the patrol was moving west on a ridgeline when they received approximately thirty grenades and heavy small arms fire from an unknown number of VC on a cliff above them. One Marine, rifleman LCPL Joseph A. Hill, was reportedly killed instantly after suffering fragmentation wounds to the head; three others were also wounded. The other three Marines and Navy corpsman went missing, either having jumped or were blown over a cliff, their casualty status unknown. The three personnel whose position was known, including the patrol leader, were extracted from the field at 5:30 PM after a storm in the area delayed their rescue. They were hoisted to a helicopter on a jungle penetrator which was lowered through the 140-foot high canopy. This was accomplished after the three wounded men crawled about 75 yards along a ledge where it narrowed to about a foot wide. This effort precluded them from retrieving Hill’s body. At 2:25 PM the following day, the four missing patrol members were located when the patrol leader and another Marine were lowered into the area by hoist from a CH-46 helicopter. All four were wounded. The two-man team then attempted to recover the body of Hill, but the mission was aborted when the aircraft received heavy automatic weapons fire. A twenty-man reaction force led by the patrol leader was inserted to bring out Hill on May 30th; however, after a thorough search of the area, they were unable to find any trace of his body. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and Command Chronology, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, May 1968, at ttu.edu]

After my uncle passed away I got to keep a ring that he wore every single day of his life. The ring had an inscription, "Joseph A. Hill USMC 05/28/68" I researched this name and discovered that the man whose name is inscribed on this ring was a true American hero. I'm very humbled to learn that through the heirloom I received upon my uncle's death I was introduced to this Marine's death--his courageous, inspiring, untimely death. Thank you Joseph, you will never be forgotten.

Dear Lcpl Joseph Hill, Thank you for your service as a Rifleman. Your 51st anniversary just passed, sad. Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and we should remember all of you who served. Watch over the USA, it still needs your courage. Rest in peace with the angels.