THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. You died at 18 years of age. I am 74 and have lived a long and fulfilling life. It is tragic you never had that same opportunity. May you rest in eternal peace.

PFC David D. Peoples Jr. was a medic serving with Headquarters & Headquarters Company (HHC), 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. In early 1971, the drawdown of U.S. forces in Vietnam saw the 25th Infantry Division increasing its area of responsibility as other divisions departed the country. The remaining Americans in Military Region III joined the South Vietnamese hunting for the enemy, disrupting his logistical network, screening the approaches to Saigon, assisting with pacification, and training the South Vietnamese for the day when they would have to stand alone. On February 24th, Peoples was with his unit settled in an overnight laager position during a patrol near Hill 108, thirteen kilometers (7.8 miles) southeast of Ga Trang Bom on National Highway QL-1 in Bien Hoa Province, RVN. Sometime early the next morning, he became ill, and at 6:40 AM was medivacked to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital at Long Binh where he was dead on arrival. A subsequent autopsy revealed the eighteen-year-old-aidman had overdosed on malaria pills. Peoples’ body was forwarded to the U.S. Army Mortuary at Tan Son Nhut Air Base and turned over to Graves Registration personnel. After processing, it was transported to Travis Air Force Base in California before being returned to his family in Texas. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org]

PFC David Douglas Peoples Jr. is buried in the Cedar Hill Memorial Park in Arlington, TX.

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Image courtesy of Redbird Research LLC, Saint Charles, MO.

Never forgotten.

HOOAH, Doc