THE WALL OF FACES

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

My respect and honor to my friend Tacio from Elgin, Texas. A WARRIOR to the end. God Bless and SEMPER FI!

You will forever remain in our hearts and prayers

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

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]