THE WALL OF FACES

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

During the spring of 1968, the 19th Engineer Battalion was on a mission to upgrade the section of National Highway QL-1 between Bong Son and Duc Pho, RVN. This work was conducted despite harassment by North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces active in the area which frequently mined the road and ambushed engineers. The highway required daily sweeping beginning at daybreak before it could be opened for traffic or road construction. On April 6, 1968, a mine sweep team from C Company, 19th Engineer Battalion, was ambushed on QL-1 seven miles north of Tam Quan in Quang Ngai Province. The 9:15 AM attack began when a command-detonated Claymore mine was discharged on the east side of the highway while an engineer was checking the road shoulder. The blast triggered a fusillade as an estimated fourteen Viet Cong, seven on each side of the roadway, opened fire with small arms, machine gun, and M79 fire. Two armored personnel carriers and ten combat engineers providing security on the sweep returned fire. Gunships were scrambled to the scene to provide support. Three engineers were killed during the attack. They included PFC Robert L. Barker Jr., PFC Michael P. McLaughlin, and SP4 Larry M. Wolpert. Two others were wounded. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “19th Engineer Battalion United States Army” at 19engrvn.org]

Dear PFC Michael McLaughlin, Thank you for your service as a Combat Engineer. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. 75 years ago today, the Treaty was signed that ended WWII. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Dear Michael Paul,
We are so close. You were coming home just a month before I was to return to the States through Fort Lewis/McCord, Washington.
Although you are probably watching me now and were then, I would like to share with others who might read this that I am sitting in your old bedroom above the garage in Seattle writing you this note. I think of you often as I walk through your home, for you see, we bought your old home some 13 years ago without knowing that you once lived here.
There are times when I envision the Army detail sent up those long winding stairs to the front door to convey to your family that you had lost your life in the fields of South Vietnam. We were both just a couple of kids then and what did we know of life and death.
About 4-5 years ago I was contacted by an investigator looking for the family of Michael Paul McLaughlin who had been killed in Vietnam and this house was his last known address stateside. I began a search via the internet and miraculously your Nephew Bill Spurlock responded to my message seeking to find your relatives. I then contacted Carl Westenberg from your old unit and told him of my success in finding your family and delivered flowers to your gravesite for them and a tribute I made for you. Your sisters Sandy and Sheila and their children were very kind in coming back to your old home some 44 years later to reminisce about their brother Mike.
It is very important to me that you know that your presence here in the house has brought the war even closer to me and vividly illustrates the coincidences and fate that makes up a life. Yes, I am sure the whole neighborhood and St. Teresa’s Parish miss you, but you left us all with a remembrance of your fetching self in this beautiful neighborhood. Yes, the ducks are still doing fine in Minerva Pond.
It would be easy for me to go on about how much you have given the World and I should, but let’s just say that I am still alive and my memories of Pleiku are ever present, as well as, my knowing you are with me in this house and living through me since that day 47 years ago…
All the best,

Bob Minnott
[email protected]
http://52dcab.org/
http://www.campholloway.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRmTPJ1EQhw

Dear Michael Paul,
We are so close. You were coming home just a month before I was to return to the States through Fort Lewis/McCord, Washington.
Although you are probably watching me now and were then, I would like to share with others who might read this that I am sitting in your old bedroom above the garage in Seattle writing you this note. I think of you often as I walk through your home, for you see, we bought your old home some 13 years ago without knowing that you once lived here.
There are times when I envision the Army detail sent up those long winding stairs to the front door to convey to your family that you had lost your life in the fields of South Vietnam. We were both just a couple of kids then and what did we know of life and death.
About 4-5 years ago I was contacted by an investigator looking for the family of Michael Paul McLaughlin who had been killed in Vietnam and this house was his last known address stateside. I began a search via the internet and miraculously your Nephew Bill Spurlock responded to my message seeking to find your relatives. I then contacted Carl Westenberg from your old unit and told him of my success in finding your family and delivered flowers to your gravesite for them and a tribute I made for you. Your sisters Sandy and Sheila and their children were very kind in coming back to your old home some 44 years later to reminisce about their brother Mike.
It is very important to me that you know that your presence here in the house has brought the war even closer to me and vividly illustrates the coincidences and fate that makes up a life. Yes, I am sure the whole neighborhood and St. Teresa’s Parish miss you, but you left us all with a remembrance of your fetching self in this beautiful neighborhood. Yes, the ducks are still doing fine in Minerva Pond.
It would be easy for me to go on about how much you have given the World and I should, but let’s just say that I am still alive and my memories of Pleiku are ever present, as well as, my knowing you are with me in this house and living through me since that day 47 years ago…
All the best,

Bob Minnott
[email protected]
http://52dcab.org/
http://www.campholloway.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRmTPJ1EQhw