THE WALL OF FACES

On May 16, 1971, a New York Times article described heroin use by American troops in Vietnam had reached epidemic proportions. The piece reported that 10 to 15 percent of lower-ranking enlisted men were heroin users, and military officials working in drug‐suppression estimated that as much as a quarter of all enlisted personnel, more than 60,000 men, were hooked. They added that some field surveys reported units with more than 50 percent of the men on heroin. In Vietnam, the drug was plentiful, cheap, and 95 percent pure. Its effects could casually be achieved through smoking or snorting, as compared to the U.S., where the drug was impure, only about five percent heroin, and had to be main-lined or injected into the bloodstream to achieve a comparable high. The habit, which cost a hundred dollars a day to maintain in the U.S., cost only five dollars a day in Vietnam. In the late spring of 1971, PFC James D. Aguilar, a draftee from Arizona serving with E Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), was at FSB Sherman, a 1st Cavalry Division firebase located thirty-four kilometers (20.4 miles) northeast of Bien Hoa Air Base in Long Khanh Province, RVN. On the late morning of May 20th, Aguilar was found sleeping in a bunker. When he could not be woken, it was noticed he was not breathing. He was brought to a military hospital where medical staff declared him dead on arrival. Aguilar was twenty years old. A final casualty report issued October 12, 1971, confirmed his death “as a result of acute pulmonary edema secondary to acute narcotism.” [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “G.I. Heroin Addiction Epidemic in Vietnam.” New York Times (New York, NY), May 16, 1971]

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt, "Citizen in a Republic", April 23, 1910

Specialist Four James Daniel Aguilar, Served with Company E, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

DEAR SPEC 4 AGIULAR,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. I WISH YOU HAD A PHOTO. YOU WERE IN THE 12 CAV REGIMENT, 1ST CAV. A FRIEND'S BROTHER, MIKE, WAS ALSO IN THE 12TH CAV.
REST IN PEACE.

James is buried at Pinal Cemetery, Central Heights, Gila County, AZ. AM ARCOM