THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever...

Specialist Four Jack Joseph Bitting, Served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

I was Jack Bitting’s platoon leader in the 1st Platoon, C Company, 1/7 Cavalry in Vietnam. I was with Jack when he died.

Our entire battalion had inserted into the Ashau Valley on April 19, 1968 and we lost a lot of helicopters going in. The insertions was like a WW2 movie with tracers flying everywhere you looked. and 37mm AA gun air burst. Then you would hear the big guns fire 5 more rounds - kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk. Our invasion into the Ashau Valley was a big deal, and a major battle in 1968. This was the NVA stronghold from which the Tet Offensive was staged. We were not able to use the planned landing zone, and the alternate required us to drop our back packs and then jump out into bamboo. Once on the ground, we moved along the ridge line of the valley. I think we moved eight or more kilometers up the valley as a battalion over the course of several days. When we got to our area of operation, one of C Company missions was to “secure” the high ground above a firebase that was being built down in the valley.

During the night of April 24, 1968 we could hear digging on the ridge line near our platoon outpost and we went out the next morning to investigate. Jack was walking second, because I did not think he had been in-country long enough to walk point. My grenadier (Robert Padilla) was near me, and I had a machine gunner also nearby. We were behind Jack and to his left. We were all scattered and off the actual ridge line trail to keep from being easy targets for an ambush. As we approached a steep peak on the ridge line, all hell broke loose. I hollered for Jack to get down, but I think he was already hit. We returned fire. NVA rolled Chicom grenades down the trail, most of which did not detonate. Padilla and I crawled over to Jack and Padilla put his ear to his chest and told me he was still breathing. Our platoon would never leave anyone behind so each of us grabbed an arm and dragged him out under a hail of gun fire. Bark was flying off trees and jungle was flying apart but neither of us was hit. Jack caught on every stick, log, and twig in the jungle, but we managed to get him out. When we got him in the hands of our medic, he was not alive. Either of his wounds appeared to be instant death.

I re-formed the platoon and we tried taking the position with the platoon attacking on line using fire and maneuver. The NVA again waited until we got close and opened fire with automatic weapons and rolled grenades on us. I tried to call in artillery and mortar fire, but the hill was just too steep. A few feet off the top of the hill was many feet down the hill. The trees on the hill were massive and the NVA were dug in between the roots. Any rounds that hit the trees blew up harmlessly high in the jungle. The 3rd platoon leader (Ike Money) brought his platoon up to help, and we tried another attack together, but we could not take the hill. About that time, our artillery forward observer suggested that the firebase in the valley fire its big guns direct-fire (like a rifle) from the valley to the ridge. That is what we did. We popped smoke for the artillery and they lined up their guns looking down the barrels. We probably put more than a dozen rounds of 155mm on target. It blew the huge trees down, and it blew away a good portion of the ridge top. We found one dead NVA with a six inch piece of shrapnel in his eye. Everyone else had fled or was blown away (several blood trails). When we commenced our artillery “direct fire” assault, a mortar and ground attack commenced on our firebase down in the valley. I have never heard so many mortars fired at once. It sounded like machine gun fire, and we thought they were being fired from Laos. Most of the mortar rounds fell short of our firebase, and I think we had just taken out the NVA soldiers who were positioned to adjust that mortar fire.
The point I am trying to make is that I felt that we had avenged the death of Jack. And although a lot of lives were probably saved in that firebase that day, I am very, very sorry for the loss of Jack. Words cannot describe war, nor can words describe the bravery I saw every day. It has been almost 50 years, and I still think about Jack.

DEAR SPEC 4 BITTING,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS AN INFANTRYMAN WITH THE 1ST CAV. A FRIEND'S BROTHER WAS 1ST CAV. SAY HI TO MIKE. IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG FOR ALL OF YOU TO HAVE BEEN GONE. WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU HAVE DONE, AND YOUR SACRIFICE. WATCH OVER THE U.S.A., IT STILL NEEDS YOUR COURAGE.. GOD BLESS YOU. MAY THE ANGELS BE AT YOUR SIDE. REST IN PEACE. MANY OF US HAVE BEGUN OUR JOURNEY TO EASTER. AND YOU ARE ALL IN OUR PRAYERS.

Dear SP4 Jack Bitting, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter