THE WALL OF FACES

Stephen is buried at Centre County Memorial Park, State College, Centre County,PA.

First Sergeant Steve Kucas had deployed to Vietnam in June 1967 as the First Sergeant of B Battery, 7th Bn, 15th Artillery. His Battery moved to LZ UPLIFT which straddled Highway 1 along the coast of the South China Sea in the Central Highlands. I was a member of HHB, 7th Bn, 15th Artillery and Steve was one of my poker playing buddies. He was a very good First Sergeant and a great Friend! He was reassigned to the 5th Bn, 22nd Artillery to replace a First Sergeant who was leaving. Steve bunked in with the outgoing First Sergeant the first night as The guy would be leaving in the morning. Unfortunately a member of that unit wanted to kill the outgoing First Sergeant and threw a fragmentation grenade into the sleeping quarters where Steve and the outgoing First Sergeant were sleeping. Steve was killed by the blast of that grenade and the other guy was wounded. I have been told the idiot that threw the grenade was caught and Courts Martialed, but cannot confirm this. Needless to say, all the members of the 7th Bn, 15th Artillery who knew Steve were and are still greatly saddened by his death. We always take time at our reunions to remember all of the "Indianheads" of the 7th Bn, 15th Artillery who were killed in Vietnam. For more information about the 15th Regiment or the 7th Bn, 15th FA Association please contact (MSG (R) Dan Gillotti, Historian, 15th FA Regiment ([email protected]).