THE WALL OF FACES

Dear WO Bert Jenkins, Thank you for your service as n Utility & Light Cargo Single Rotor Helicopter Pilot. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It's the end of summer. The time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

Warrant Officer Bert McCree Jenkins, Served with Company B, 1st Aviation Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

Dad, I think about you often. I wish I could have gotten to know you better. You died the day after my ninth birthday. I want you to know how extremely proud of you I am, and I miss you, a lot. Love, Cheryl Ann

SP5 Fred C. Jenkins was a welder in C Company, 725th Maintenance Battalion, 25th Infantry Division. On April 2, 1968, SP5 Jenkins died at the Cu Chi Base Camp in Hau Nghia Province, RVN, in what was described as a welding accident. While welding in the engine well of a military vehicle, an explosion occurred. The area he was working in filled with smoke and SP5 Jenkins was asphyxiated. He was 49 years-old. A year later, his son, U.S. Army pilot WO1 Bert M. Jenkins, was killed in action on April 28, 1969. The younger Jenkins was piloting a U.S. Army helicopter AH-1G tail (number 67-15835) from B Company, 1st Aviation Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, on a convoy ambush support mission between An Loc & Lai Khe along Highway QL-13. His aircraft came under enemy small arms fire at which time WO1 Jenkins suffered a gunshot wound to the head. The aircraft made an emergency landing with the co-pilot at the controls. Jenkins was evacuated to a military hospital where he succumbed to his wound. The Jenkins were one of three pairs of fathers and sons who died during the Vietnam War. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and vhpa.org]

Mr. Jenkins was a kind man who flew a cobra gunship for the Rebels, 1st Aviation bgd, 1st Inf. Div. He flew with Jim Gramky the day he was shot down. Mr. Gramky is still with us living in Florida. I have E-mail contact with him and several other Rebel pilots and crew members if you need to contact them. I remember his death occurred when he returned from R&R with his wife in Hawaii. I am very sorry for your loss. If I can help my E-mail is [email protected]

God bless