THE WALL OF FACES

Taken from The New York Times (New York, NY), October 17, 1967.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

Never forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

On the remembrance of your 73rd birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine.

At approximately 5:30 AM on October 15, 1967, twenty-eight MK-82 five-hundred pound bombs were part of an ordinance drop by a U.S. Marine Corps A-6A Intruder attack aircraft on enemy targets near the C-2 Bridge, approximately two miles southeast of Con Thien (Hill 158) in Quang Tri Province, RVN. A single bomb out of the group fell on friendly troops from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, who were guarding the bridge in an area known as Leatherneck Square, just south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The pre-dawn explosion killed three Marines and wounded thirteen, one of whom later died of his injuries. The lost Marines included CPL Franklin L. Carey, PFC Kenneth J. Landers, and PFC Hubert Stackhouse; LCPL Thomas J. Tori died of his injuries the following day. The dead and wounded were taken to a collection point at the Company Command Post where they waited in misting rain and mud until daybreak when a Marine H-34 helicopter arrived to carry them to Dong Ha. The incident occurred while the Intruder was under control of a Marine Air Support Radar Team, codename Devastate Delta, stationed at Dong Ha. The General Electric TPQ-1O Course Directing Central ground-based bombing system was immediately taken down and checked by standard test programs. No errors were detected. Analysis of the bomb craters in the area indicated that the single wayward bomb followed an errant trajectory due to an unknown and undeterminable failure mode of the fin assembly during or prior to release. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and 1st Marine Air Wing Command Chronology and information provided by Sam Cunningham (April 2020)]