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….

Never forgotten.

Semper Fortis

Dear CPO Joseph Nemeth, Thank you for your service as a Chief Construction Mechanic (Automobile). Your 52nd anniversary just passed, sad. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It’s a New Year, but not necessarily better. It is also M.L. King’s birthday. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

As your birthday approaches, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Non sibi sed patriae

EO3 William T. Franke was an Equipment Operator and CMC Joseph Nemeth Jr. was a Chief Construction Mechanic. Both men were assigned to Public Works, Naval Support Activity, Da Nang. On Christmas Day 1968, they were at the China Beach Rest and Rehabilitation Center in Da Nang when each of them was critically injured. Nemeth reportedly fell and suffered a cerebral concussion. He died seven days later on January 1, 1969, at Naval Support Activity Station Hospital in Da Nang. Franke was injured in a swimming accident where he reportedly broke his neck. He was medically evacuated to the United States and died on February 20, 1969, at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, from complications of pneumonia. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and vvmf.org; Nemeth’s obit is courtesy of Katy Currence at Coffee County Lannom Library in Tullahoma, TN; Franke’s is from Stacey Costantino at Gloucester County Historical Society, Woodbury, NJ]