THE WALL OF FACES

Uncle Kenny, I have sweet memories of you when I was a child. I am honored to have you as my family and thank you for your service and sacrifice for our country.

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us...

Kenny, I have thought of you often over the years. You were a good friend to me when I joined the Blackwell Family. You left us to soon.

Operation Paul Revere IV was a United States Army operation that took place in the Plei Trap Valley in Kontum Province, RVN, between October 20 and December 30, 1966. In early October 1966, U.S. intelligence reported a buildup of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units near Plei Djereng and Duc Co Special Forces Camps southeast of the Plei Trap Valley adjacent to the Cambodian border. The operation to counter this threat was conducted by elements of the 1st, 4th, and 25th Infantry Divisions plus a U.S. Army-Special Forces unit designated Task Force Prong. On November 11th, the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, was deployed by helicopter to assist TF Prong. During the insertion, two helicopters were shot down by NVA machine guns. The 1/12 Infantry established a firebase called FSB Red Warrior near the landing zone and patrolled the immediate vicinity. The enemy reacted swiftly, and on the evening of November 12th, North Vietnamese mortars bombarded the firebase as two NVA battalions began human wave attacks on the north and west perimeters. Two orbiting U.S. Air Force A-1E Skyraiders engaged the attackers with napalm, cluster-bombs and machine gun fire. The NVA withdrew at midnight and the following morning the U.S. claimed that seventy-six enemy dead were found on the base perimeter while a helicopter pilot alleged a further four hundred dead on the approaches to the base. American losses were six killed and forty-one wounded. They included from C Company, 1/12: PFC Charles T. Anderson Jr., PFC Kenneth H. Blackwell, PFC Ronald E. Bocook, SP4 Nicholas J. Fulmer, and CPL Cecil Walker; an engineer from D Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, heavy equipment operator SP4 Leslie P. Dedman, also died defending the base. Not wishing to risk more fighting so near the border, FSB Red Warrior was abandoned, and another base was established farther east. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and “Taking the Offensive: October 1966-September 1967” by Glenn F. Williams]