THE WALL OF FACES

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

Operation Mameluke Thrust (May 19 - October 23, 1968) was a U.S. Marine Corps operation in Happy Valley southwest of Da Nang, RVN. Happy Valley was a major Viet Cong (VC)/North Vietnamese Army (NVA) base camp, storage area, and supply infiltration route. Nicknamed the "Rocket Belt,” enemy personnel and material was placed in positions on the hills overlooking or surrounding the Da Nang area and fired 122mm rockets (with a range of seven miles) at the city and allied military facilities. On the third day of Mameluke Thrust, a Golf Battery, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division mobile Fire Direction Center (FDC) was set up inside a LVTP-5 amphibious tracked vehicle parked on the sand adjacent to the Song Vu Gia (river) at the base of Hill 52. The Amtrac faced the river with its rear loading ramp lowered, and the Fire Direction Officer, 1LT James R. Muckleroy, and his watch sergeant, SGT Charles W. Haskell, sat in lawn chairs across from each other on the ramp. To the south of their position past the river, NVA mortars had been harassing the Golf position for several days and inflicted a number of casualties. At approximately 3:30 PM, 82mm mortar rounds began falling again. The incoming rounds were adjusted and marched toward the FDC at three-minute intervals. In an extraordinary occurrence that could have never been duplicated, a round landed on the ramp between Muckleroy and Haskell, mortally wounding both men. The blast also fatally injured another Marine inside the Amtrac, LCPL Richard A. McClain, and wounded three others. A medivac was called, and while the casualties were being organized, countermortar fire was returned by Golf Battery and Kilo Battery, 4/11. The evacuation helicopter set down in a cornfield behind the battery, and Muckleroy and Haskell were still alive when placed on the chopper; they expired shortly after. The events of May 22nd pained the members of Golf, and after the battery moved on, the area was forever remembered as “Mortar Beach.” [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “Command Chronology (11th Marines), May 1968” and “Command Chronology (3d Bn 11th Marines)” at ttu.edu; also, information provided by Larry Binns (April 2022)]

Dear Lcpl Richard McClain, Thank you for your service as a Field Artillery Fire Control Man. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Time passes quickly, but our world needs help. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

Semper Fidelis, Marine.

Dear LCPL Richard Aaron McClain, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter