THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Cpl Robert Payne, Thank you for your service with the 3rd Anti-Tank Battalion. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Easter Thursday. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

This is his boot camp photo from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Platoon 253. He earned the title “U.S. Marine” on April 23, 1966.

Thank you for your service to our great country my brother. Semper Fi

Corporal Robert Paul Payne, Served with Company A, 3rd Anti-Tank Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force.

Remembering my college classmate and friend, Marine Corporal Robert Paul Payne, A Co, 3rd Antitank BN, 3rd MARDIV, communications officer, Hampshire, Illinois. Born December 17, 1943 in Traer, Iowa, he graduated from North Central College, Naperville, Illinois in 1966. Mortally wounded by a direct mortar/artillery hit on the communications’ bunker on March 11, 1968, he died March 18 in Quang Tri Province, South Viet Nam, which was located near the DMZ. This was about a month after Phase I of the Tet Offensive (January-February 1968). Fighting in the province, usually referred to as the Battle of Khe Sanh, was brutal. Between January and July 1968, more than 750 Marines were killed and almost 5,000 were wounded. He is buried at Buckingham Cemetery in Traer, Iowa. RIP, Bob.