THE WALL OF FACES

E.E. Smith Senior High School, Fayetteville, NC
1963 Smithsonian Yearbook

You will forever remain in our hearts and prayers

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

During Operation Junction City I, airborne troops of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173d Airborne Brigade sought the Viet Cong’s (VC) elusive “headquarters” of the Communist uprising in South Vietnam. Searching in thick bamboo forest and jungle adjacent to the Cambodian border in western Tay Ninh Province, the highly mobile VC were not easy to find, and encounters with them could be sudden and deadly. Early on the morning of March 3, 1967, Third Platoon, C Company, 2-503rd set out on an all-day search and destroy mission from their company’s night defensive position (NDP). While revisiting an area where contact with the enemy was made the day before, the platoon was ambushed after they observed and began pursuing a solitary VC fleeing down a trail. Thinking they had an easy “kill,” the VC led them into a well-planned kill zone. An estimated Viet Cong company opened up with small arms, automatic weapons, and Claymore mines. The point element suffered heavy casualties and was pinned down when calls came in to the NDP for help. A reaction force from Second Platoon began racing to their location. Radio contact was lost with the patrol during the half-hour it took before they found the first American, lying dead on a trail with his arms outstretched. Next to him lay a jammed M16 rifle. Further down they found a small clearing where five survivors huddled together. In front of them were fifteen dead, many hit multiple times. Several of them died trying to pull back their wounded comrades. While policing up the battle area, of the fifteen, nine had jammed M16’s. The dead and two wounded were carried in ponchos slung to bamboo stalks to a hastily cut landing zone. The lost personnel included PVT Lawrence Strack, PFC Charles B. Alandt, PFC Charles H. Bennett, 1LT Welborn A. Callahan Jr., PFC Paul W. Curran, PFC Michael J. Drake, PFC Michael L. Ebald, SSG Melvin C. Gaines, PFC Earl S. Garrison, SP4 Moses Green, SSG Angel P. Saez-Ramirez, PFC James A. Skiles, SGT John R. Stalter, PFC Selvester J. Vasques, and PFC Herbert Wilson Jr. Two enemy dead were found. Green, a medic, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for valor during the battle; Stalter received the Bronze Star. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and SGT Stalter’s Bronze Star medal citation; also, the book “Blood on the Risers” by John Leppelman]

Private First Class Charles Herman Bennett, Served with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, United States Army Vietnam.