THE WALL OF FACES

SSG Tom R. Adler was a combat engineer serving with D Company, 39th Engineer Battalion, 45th Engineer Group, 18th Engineer Brigade, U.S. Army Republic of Vietnam Engineer Command. In early 1971, the 39th Engineer Battalion was one of six engineer battalions still in Vietnam as the U.S. accelerated its force reduction in Southeast Asia. For the remainder of the year, the 39th carried out combat and operational support missions primarily geared to support the remaining U.S. combat forces still in theater. During the month of May, Adler’s unit was in the vicinity of Hill 38, two kilometers (1.2 miles) northwest of Tam Ky in Quang Tin Province, RVN, when he became ill and was hospitalized at the 91st Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai. He was diagnosed with a series of abdominal infections and upper gastro-intestinal bleeding complicated by falciparum malaria, the deadliest form of malaria in humans. Despite the best efforts of medical staff at managing his illness, Adler died of respiratory failure on May 23, 1971, five days after being hospitalized. His wife, Mrs. Anita A. Adler, requested that an Army friend of her husband, SFC Teodor W. Padalinski, be granted permission to escort his body to their home in the former West Germany; however, command staff from the 8th Army in Korea where Padalinski was stationed disallowed the request, stating he was not eligible because he was not a member of the family and had not completed his tour in Korea. Adler, 47, was a nineteen-year veteran of the Army. He enlisted as Zbigniew Bernatowicz (born 1924) after emigrating to the United States from Wilne, Poland (now Lithuania), later taking an Americanized name. He was laid to rest in Bavaria (today part of the Federal Republic of Germany). [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “Engineers at War” by Adrian G. Traas]

Image courtesy of Redbird Research LLC, Saint Charles, MO.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. Rest in eternal peace.

Staff Sergeant Tom Robert Adler, Served with Company D, 39th Engineer Battalion, 45th Engineer Group, 18th Engineer Brigade, United States Army Vietnam Engineer Command, United States Army Vietnam.

You gave your life for your Country and for this we salute you.