THE WALL OF FACES

I served with your Dad, I was with him the night he was shot(multiple times) He was a great guy, we spent almost a year together than 31 January’68 happen, it was a night mare !! [email protected] if you need all the info ! !

I am David’s son, Jeffrey Wayne Pippin. Every year around the time of his death, especially in the last few years, I reflect on the incredible loss I feel in never getting to meet my father or share any time with him. I wish I could know him, even just talk to him for a moment. It is an incredible feeling of loss and speaks to the undeniable tragedy of war. It has been 54 years since he died and the pain and loss never goes away, not for my mother, not for me and not for my twin brother.

Dear Sp5 David Pippin, Thank you for your service as a Food Service Specialist. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Memorial Day soon. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

The 84th Engineer Battalion maintained their base camp at Camp Williams, west of the city of Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh Province, RVN. During the January 1968 Tet Offensive, Williams was attacked by a squad of Viet Cong sappers which succeeded in penetrating the camp perimeter. A few hours after midnight on February 3, 1968, the sappers gained entrance by destroying the #3 perimeter bunker with a B-40 rocket-propelled grenade. On guard duty in #3 was Heavy Construction Equipment operator SP4 Daniel Pena Jr. Pena died after suffering fragmentation wounds in the explosion. The sappers infiltrated the camp, tossing satchel charges and firing small arms. During the rampage, they attacked a tent where the cook slept with a satchel charge, critically injuring food service specialist SP5 David W. Pippin. While the engineers organized their defenses amidst the chaos, the sappers escaped. The wounded Pippin was medically evacuated to the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines where he died of cardiac arrest and renal failure on February 14, 1968, from the injuries he received. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “Engineers at War” by Adrian G. Traas; also information provided by John Bieda (March 2021)]

On the remembrance of your 76th birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH