THE WALL OF FACES

Rest in peace with the warriors.

Ronald is buried at Houston Nat Cem. BSM PH

SPECIALIST FOURTH CLASS

RONALD EUGENE PONGRATZ


TROOP A

1st SQUADRON

11th ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT

" BLACKHORSE "


CITATION FOR POSTHUMOUS AWARD OF

THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS


The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Ronald Eugene Pongratz, Specialist Fourth Class, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Specialist Four Pongratz distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 13 and 18 April 1969 while serving as a vehicle commander during a reconnaissance-in-force mission. As his armored vehicle team was moving through the jungles north of Dau Tieng in Tay Ninh Province on 13 April, an enemy force initiated a mortar and automatic weapons assault from a series of concealed fortifications. Specialist Pongratz quickly directed his vehicle to lay a base of suppressive fire while the team began an on-line assault and overran the bunker complex. Specialist Pongratz was leading a dismounted sweep when suddenly a hostile soldier threw a grenade into the midst of the team. He grabbed the device and threw it away. Although the explosion inflicted shrapnel wounds to his arm he fired on and killed the enemy. Declining evacuation, Specialist Pongratz stayed with the mission, and on the morning of 18 April, another hostile bunker system was encountered and overrun. As Specialist Pongratz was conducting the right flank of a dismounted sweep, an enemy emplacement opened fire pinning down several men. Rushing the position, he tossed a grenade which silenced it. Then, as another bunker attacked the team, Specialist Pongratz charged the fortification. Despite being struck by rifle fire, he continued to crawl toward the bunker into which he delivered another grenade, ending the hostile resistance. Specialist Four Pongratz' extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty, at the cost of his life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.





THE PROUD YOUNG VALOR THAT ROSE ABOVE THE MORTAL

AND THEN, AT LAST, WAS MORTAL AFTER ALL





YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

NOR SHALL YOU EVER BE





14 February 1999
30 July 1999

Ronald was assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhorse) at the time of his death. 11th Armored Cavalry Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia are attempting to locate relatives of all of our Troopers who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. Please contact us at: [email protected] or through our website: http://www.11thcavnam.com

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers