THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from your Aunt Syble Hill Bokides is moving and reflects her eternal love for you. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

I was your maid of honor at your wedding. Many years later now Judy gone too, the loss is still with me. Good friends Rest In Peace.

PFC Michael W. Hill, SP4 Nazir Mohammed, and SGT Gerald Welsch were infantrymen serving with 3rd Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. In the spring of 1971, their battalion conducted combat patrols in the mountains west of Camp Evans, a former U.S. Marine base fourteen miles northwest of Hue in Thua Thien Province, RVN. Early on the afternoon of March 12, 1971, 3rd Platoon was on a mountaintop approximately eight miles southwest of Phong Dien. The rest of the company was spread out over the adjacent area. Accompanying 3rd Platoon was the Command Group led by an inexperienced captain who was newly arrived in the field. Artillery marking rounds (possible from FSB Kathryn) were being fired around their position. The seasoned GIs on the hill noted the erratic nature of rounds impacting nearby; nevertheless, the urgency of the situation failed to register with the new captain. They received a radio message that seismic personnel detectors at the base of the mountain were reporting activity. Against protests of the ranking enlisted men, the captain decided to send several men down to investigate. The group included Hill, Mohammed, and Welsch. While moving along a river at the base of the mountain, a friendly 105mm artillery landed on the patrol. The results were devastating. Welsch was killed instantly; Mohammed was critically injured and died before he could be put on the medivac aircraft. Gravely wounded in the abdomen, Hill was medivacked to Camp Evans, then transferred to Phu Bai Combat Base fifteen minutes away by helicopter. The surgical team worked on him four hours when he expired shortly before midnight. An elderly sergeant with the group lost parts of two limbs but survived to make it back home. A fifth person was slightly injured. Enemy fire drove off a second medivac aircraft sent to recover Welsch’s body. With extraordinary effort, his remains were carried back up the mountain. They were later flown back to Camp Evans, followed later in the day by the remainder of 3rd Platoon. In the wake of their deaths, each man received a posthumous promotion, Hill to Corporal, Mohammed to Sergeant, and Welsch to Staff Sergeant. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by John P. Georgiton and Michael W. Ball (November 2021)]

On the remembrance of your 70th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

Mike sat behind me in art class STAGG HS 69. RIP MIKE