THE WALL OF FACES

Some may think you are forgotten
Though on earth you are no more
But in our memory you are with us
As you always were before….

Dear PFC Elmer Kepsel, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Your 73rd birthday was this month, happy birthday. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Today is Thanksgiving, so this is the perfect time to say thanks. The time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

On February 16, 1967, during the fourth day of Operation Sam Houston, Company A, 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, was conducting a search and destroy mission west of Pleiku in the Plei Trap Valley. The point squad observed several North Vietnamese Army soldiers and gave chase, leading them into an ambush which they were unable to disengage until nightfall. The contact was with an enemy force that apparently was moving east and led them directly into the numerically superior NVA force. The squad received intense enemy automatic weapons fire and was subsequently cut off from the remainder of the company. Squad Leader SSG Alton J. Zerangue Jr. immediately organized his men into a defensive perimeter, and they counterattacked with a heavy volume of fire. The enemy inflicted many casualties among the squad, however, SSG Zerangue utilized his remaining forces to delay the enemy, giving the rest of the company time to regroup and form a defensive perimeter. Zerangue was wounded three times but remained with his squad to lead them against the enemy until he was mortally wounded. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for bravery. The vegetation in the area of the battle was extremely dense and the enemy used this to their advantage by deploying numerous accurate snipers in the trees and undergrowth very close to Company A’s position. The Americans requested close artillery support and air strikes including CBU (“cluster bombs”) and napalm. A heavy volume of fire was placed on the sniper's positions as soon as they were determined. When the battle ended, twenty-one members of A Company had been lost. The fallen troopers with Zerangue included PFC Channing Allen Jr., SGT Lee R. Bays, SP4 Anastacio H. Beltran, PFC William M. Berenwick, PFC Lanny R. Bolding, PFC Douglas R. Colbert, SGT Donald R. Dorman, PFC Curtis L. Duck, PFC Larry S. Fetherolf, SSG Walter W. Haring, PFC Clemente D. Hernandez, PFC Elmer F. Kepsel, SP4 Kenneth L. Koster, CPL Richard A. Lawrence, SP4 Lewis Lee, SP4 Marlow M. Loecker, CPT Colin D. Mac Manus, PFC John E. Oocumma, CPL Donald. L. Schnee, and SP4 Richard Tarkington Jr. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and SSG Zerangue’s Silver Star citation]

PFC Kepsel was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor for his exemplary courage under fire while serving with A Co, 1st Bn, 22nd Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

I was Elmer's "girlfriend" when he went to Vietnam. He gave me his class ring to wear the night before he left. He was killed 4 months to the day he went over. We had no idea what our loved one's faced over there. All my photo's of him I gave to his younger brother, Harry. I went on to marry another Vietnam Vet who was also in the 4th. Inf. Strange how life turn's out.