THE WALL OF FACES

War drew us from our homeland
In the sunlit springtime of our youth.
Those who did not come back alive remain
in perpetual springtime -- forever young --
And a part of them is with us always.

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

HOOAH

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

HOOAH

Operation Toan Thang I ("Complete Victory") was a U.S. Army, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), 1st Australian Task Force, and Royal Thai Volunteer Regiment operation conducted between April 8 and May 31, 1968. The operation was part of a reaction to the previous January’s Tet Offensive and designed to put pressure on Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces operating around the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. The operation was a success with allied forces claiming 7,645 VC/NVA killed; however, the operation did not prevent the enemy from launching their May Offensive attacks against the capital. Throughout the first week of May, many U.S. Army 25th Division base camps, artillery fire support bases, and battalion night defensive positions near Saigon came under light, but harassing enemy stand-off rocket and mortar attacks. In the darkness of the early hours of May 9th, this enemy tactic was intensified. At 1:00 AM, the 25th’s divisional headquarters at Cu Chi Base Camp was struck by thirty rounds of mixed 122mm and 107mm rockets. The rockets all fell within a span of two minutes, killing seven Americans and wounding forty-eight. The lost personnel included SP5 Johnnie W. Davis, SP4 Billy R. Kiely, SP4 Barry W. Lewis, SP5 Charles R. Rosenbusch, PVT Ralph Sanchez Jr., SP4 Jim S. Traw, and SFC Frank E. Williams. Damage to the base was light. An hour later, nearby FSB Maury came under a heavy mortar and rocket attack followed by a battalion-sized ground assault. U.S. casualties in that action were nine killed and sixty-eight wounded. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and “Operational Report – Lessons Learned, Headquarter, 25th Infantry Division, Period Ending 31 July 1968” at ttu.edu]