VIEW ALL PHOTOS (6)
HONORED ON PANEL 61E, LINE 6 OF THE WALL
FORREST LA WAYNE BARTRAM
WALL NAME
FORREST L BARTRAM
PANEL / LINE
61E/6
DATE OF BIRTH
CASUALTY PROVINCE
DATE OF CASUALTY
HOME OF RECORD
COUNTY OF RECORD
STATE
BRANCH OF SERVICE
RANK
REMEMBRANCES
LEFT FOR FORREST LA WAYNE BARTRAM
POSTED ON 1.11.2010
POSTED BY: Robert Sage
We Remember
Forrest is buried at Ft Sam Houston National Cem,San Antonio,TX. PH
POSTED ON 11.27.2006
POSTED BY: Kiya Butler
My Hero, My Uncle
I never met him, but he is an important person in my life. Adopted into my family at the age of 10, Forrest La Wayne Bartram became my uncle and hero. He lived with my grandma and her husband at the time in Midland, Texas until 1967 when he joined the Marine Corp at the age of 18 after graduating from high school.
My Uncle began his tour of Vietnam on December 29, 1967. He was stationed at Okinawa until February 26, 1968, and then was assigned to the Special Weapons Platoon of Mike Company. He arrived in Vietnam right after his 19th birthday during the 1968 TET offensive. His squad was known as the rocket squad. This squad specialty was a Korean War vintage bazooka, aka “3.5” rocket launcher, which are primarily used against tanks. In May 1968, his company stumbled onto a huge North Vietnamese Regimental Base Camp in Thua Thien Province at Hai Van Pass, begin the battle of Hai Van Pass, aka Hill 1192. The battle lasted for 6 days. On May 16, 1968, Forrest was cleaning a 3.5 rocket launcher while his company was at base camp, getting supplies, clean weapons and receiving replacements. When the 3.5 rocket launcher went off from the failure to remove the live round, the back blast from the launcher killed my uncle at the age of 19.
When my grandma received the phone call about Forrest’s death, they were about to leave for Houston where my mom was going to get surgery for cancer at the age of 6 months. This surgery could have killed my mom. I believe Forrest was my moms’ guardian angel and if Forrest did not die on May 16, 1968 my mom would have died while in surgery.
Forrest La Wayne Bartram died in Vietnam serving this country and was the first person in my family to graduate from high school. If my uncle did not die in Vietnam or even joined the Marine Corp, he would still be my hero. He did something that only one other people in my family, out of my aunts and uncles, that graduated from high school making him my hero. Serving the United States is just a bonus to me.
My Uncle began his tour of Vietnam on December 29, 1967. He was stationed at Okinawa until February 26, 1968, and then was assigned to the Special Weapons Platoon of Mike Company. He arrived in Vietnam right after his 19th birthday during the 1968 TET offensive. His squad was known as the rocket squad. This squad specialty was a Korean War vintage bazooka, aka “3.5” rocket launcher, which are primarily used against tanks. In May 1968, his company stumbled onto a huge North Vietnamese Regimental Base Camp in Thua Thien Province at Hai Van Pass, begin the battle of Hai Van Pass, aka Hill 1192. The battle lasted for 6 days. On May 16, 1968, Forrest was cleaning a 3.5 rocket launcher while his company was at base camp, getting supplies, clean weapons and receiving replacements. When the 3.5 rocket launcher went off from the failure to remove the live round, the back blast from the launcher killed my uncle at the age of 19.
When my grandma received the phone call about Forrest’s death, they were about to leave for Houston where my mom was going to get surgery for cancer at the age of 6 months. This surgery could have killed my mom. I believe Forrest was my moms’ guardian angel and if Forrest did not die on May 16, 1968 my mom would have died while in surgery.
Forrest La Wayne Bartram died in Vietnam serving this country and was the first person in my family to graduate from high school. If my uncle did not die in Vietnam or even joined the Marine Corp, he would still be my hero. He did something that only one other people in my family, out of my aunts and uncles, that graduated from high school making him my hero. Serving the United States is just a bonus to me.
POSTED ON 5.24.2006
A Hero's Story
POSTED ON 10.12.2005
POSTED BY: Bill Nelson
Never Forgotten
FOREVER REMEMBERED
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heros you left behind...."
Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.
We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heros lost to the War in Vietnam:
Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.
From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heros you left behind...."
Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.
We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heros lost to the War in Vietnam:
Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.
From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers