THE WALL OF FACES

Never forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

On the morning of August 30, 1970, a patrol from B Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, was carried by helicopter to Hill 995, approximately ten miles southwest of Da Nang in Quang Nam Province, RVN. The seven-man team, call sign Chili Pepper, consisted of six enlisted Marines and a Navy corpsman. Their mission was to detect Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army movement or arms infiltration at selected points in the area and call and adjust air strikes or artillery on all targets of opportunity. The following morning, the team called for a routine medivac for a patrol member with a fever of 103 degrees. They were directed to find a suitable helicopter landing zone so the man could be extracted. While maneuvering through a rocky streambed, one of the Marines, LCPL Jimmy R. Holkem, broke an ankle. The team then called for a full extraction, and an aerial observer on station directed them through dense jungle terrain to a pick-up point on a rocky hill. At 6:00 PM, CH-46 helicopters arrived with 60-foot rope ladders; however, they were unable to reach the team and the ships returned to base for longer ladders. While waiting, the team used demolition charges to remove a tree for a clearer landing zone (LZ). The aircraft returned, lowered the longer ladders, and four team members began climbing while three others, including Holkem, held the ladder at the bottom. While the men ascended, the hovering aircraft moved away from the cliff, forcing the three below to let go or be drug over the cliff. At the same time, downdraft from the helicopter caused a tree to fall. It hit the ladder, throwing three men off. The falling tree also struck Holkem in the head, fatally injuring him, and knocked another man over the edge, rendering him unconscious. The aircraft was guided back by strobe light, and one of the patrol members who managed to climb up to the helicopter came back down the ladder to assist. The aircraft was then waved away while the teams members searched down the cliff for the missing men. One man, radioman LCPL Dale A. Pennington, was critically injured in the fall from the ladder and expired shortly after being located. The team, with two dead and their weapons and equipment scattered and lost, spend a stressful night on the rocky cliff. In the morning, they signaled U.S. aircraft, and in an effort complicated by a series of missteps, the team and its casualties were removed from the hill. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org]

Dear Lcpl Jimmy Holkem, Thank you for your service as a Rifleman. Next week is Independence Day, and there is no better time to honor you. Please watch over the USA, it still needs your strength. Rest in peace with the angels.

My name is Krysteen Wescott and I am the daughter of Sgt 1st class Robert H Wescott Jr. It meant a lot to me to find your picture.I wrote to have your picture posted in Jan 2018 and now see your picture is posted. You are remembered