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….

Dear SSgt James McCormick, Thank you for your service as an Infantry Unit Leader/ Your 53rd anniversary is soon, sad. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Yesterday was the 56th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. 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.

On August 15, 1967, a dawn patrol consisting of over twenty Marines from C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, were sent toward a village 1 ½ miles east of Hoi An on Cam Thanh Island in Quang Nam Province, RVN, to investigate a possible enemy presence in the area. The group was divided into three squads and left before dawn under the cover of darkness. The plan was to conduct a hammer and anvil maneuver by positioning one squad as a blocking force (the anvil) and use the other two as the hammer. The plan was complicated when the blocking force started receiving sniper fire. Then a Marine from one of the hammer squads triggered a booby-trap. Two men were killed in the blast and two critically injured. A medivac was called and removed the injured. Because of heavy enemy fire, stretchers were tossed out of the aircraft for the Marines to carry back to base the two dead. As the Marines moved towards their base with their two fallen comrades, a second, more violent explosion occurred as another booby-trap was detonated. The effect was devastating. Dead and critically injured Marines were strewn about. Their wounds were horrifying, with limbs and flesh ripped from bodies. Two were decapitated by the blast, and another was blown into a tree, the bottom half of his body missing. A total of ten men were killed in the two explosions. Again, medivac helicopters were called in, and the wounded and dead were placed aboard. The able-bodied survivors then marched back to their patrol base. The Marines lost in the two mine explosions included PVT Clarence R. Angus, PVT Glenn C. Baer, LCPL Larry E. Bowman, LCPL Douglas R. Dickerson Jr., LCPL Gordon P. Eadie, 1LT Robert V. Kemp, LCPL Robert A. Kolas, SSGT James J. McCormack, PFC Paul McEachron, and Navy corpsman HN Clifford K. Coons. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and the book “Lions of Medina” by Doyle D. Glass]

Semper Fi Staff Sergeant.

Dear SSGT James Joseph McCormack, 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, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter