THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from Lisa Humphries is especially poignant. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us....

Memorial Day Remembrance.
"The Letterman Sweater" By Lisa Ann Humphries
Last year when my father died, I became the recipient of an item he had saved since the 1960s. My dad was a delivery man for Sparkletts Water Company when he was a young husband and father, which probably saved him from going to Vietnam. The Vietnam war was during that time. One of his customers on his route, were parents of a young high school graduate and soldier who had died during the war. Their only son, named Barry Barber, who had attended Las Vegas High School. was killed in this horrible war. Because my Dad was about the age of their son who died, they took a liking to my Dad. They gave their son's letterman sweater to my Dad. He kept it for all of these years, because it meant something to him. An era, a sentimentality, a duty not to throw it away, and a duty to remember not only the young man and his parents, but also his many high school buddies who died in the war.
Now I have been bestowed with this sweater which represents the innocence of youth lost, sacrifice, a mother's and father's grief of losing their only son...the price of my freedom. Rremembering is the least I can do. Thank you to all of the fallen soldiers, and to their families who paid the price of immeasurable grief.

Seaman Barry Morris Barber, Served aboard Armored Troop Carrier 152-10 (ATC 152-10), River Assault Squadron 15, Task Force 117 (TF-117), United States Naval Forces Vietnam.

DEAR SEAMAN BARBER,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS A SEAMAN, IT BUGS ME THAT YOU DIED IN THE SAME MONTH AS YOUR BIRTH, SIGH. WATCH OVER AMERICA. IT STILL NEEDS YOUR GRACE. TODAY IS VETERANS' DAY.- SO IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER AND HONOR ALL OF YOU. MAY THE SAINTS AND ANGELS GUIDE YOU. REST IN PEACE.
HAPPY VETERANS' DAY.

SN Barry M. Barber served on U.S. Navy Tango boat T-152-10, part of River Assault Squadron 15, Task Force 117, U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. The Tango boat was a 54-foot converted LCM-6 landing craft from WWII. They had ramps on the front for loading and offloading infantry troops in the Mekong Delta. The boats were redesigned and outfitted with cannons, automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, and small arms. The ramp alone weighed 4.5 tons, so the Tango boats were extremely heavy and moved slowly in the rivers and canals. They moved even more slowly when pushing against an outgoing tide. SN Barber’s T-152-10 (Tango 10) was assigned duty to a small Vietnamese Navy Base at Rach Soi, RVN. This was close to the larger city of Rach Gia which is adjacent to the Gulf of Siam (now the Gulf of Thailand). Part of their duty was patrolling nearby "Charlie Canal," straight as an arrow and dug by the Chinese and Vietnamese centuries ago. On December 27, 1968, during one these riverine patrols, Tango 10 and a PBR (Patrol Boat River) engaged in a fierce firefight with the Viet Cong. It was late in the evening and pitch black out. Back at their base panicked screams could be heard over our radio with gunfire every time the radio mikes were keyed. During the engagement, Tango 10 received three direct hits from rocket propelled grenades. One hit SN Barber in the chest, fatally wounding him. Others had been placed strategically to wound other crew members. When Tango 10 was returned to base after the battle ended and the medivac was completed, lights were shined into the well deck of the boat where the horrible carnage became visible. Blood mixed with spent machine gun cartridges, the latter evidence that SN Barber had fought hard until his sudden death. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and riverinesailor.com]