THE WALL OF FACES

War drew us from our homeland
In the sunlit springtime of our youth.
Those who did not come back alive remain
in perpetual springtime -- forever young --
And a part of them is with us always.

To the family of Arturo receipt reseal Rios I knew your dad Pete Rios I worked with him for two years at bonded produce in Idaho Falls. What I didn’t realize that that time was we had something very much in common you lost your son in Vietnam and I lost my brother in Vietnam and all the time I worked with your dad as much as I admired working with them I didn’t know that we shared the same sadness in our hearts are used to love your dad he would always joke on we unloaded trucks and he would say hurry up grandma Moses was slow but she was old get them down spuds out of that truck. I did not know Arturo but I knew Pete and it’s I am proud to know both of them

Dear Sp4 Arturo Rios, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. The 54th anniversary of the start of your tour is soon. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Labor Day weekend. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Taken from The Post Register (Idaho Falls, ID), April 23, 1968, courtesy of Beth Swenson, Assistant Director - Public Services, Idaho Falls Public Library, Idaho Falls, ID.

Operation Truong Cong Dinh (“People's Road”) was a United States and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) security operation to reestablish South Vietnamese control over the northern Mekong Delta in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. The operation aimed to root out Viet Cong forces in the area and stop them from attacking traffic on the nearby Highway QL-4. The operation started on March 7, 1968, and lasted until August 1968, involving the 1st and 2nd brigades of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division and the ARVN 7th Division backed by South Vietnamese Regional Forces. SP4 Arturo R. Rios was an infantryman serving with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. SP4 Rios’ unit participated in the operations against Viet Cong main-force battalions operating in the areas adjacent to QL-4, locating and battling the enemy forces in some of the most difficult terrain in Vietnam. During one of the engagements, Rios was wounded by enemy fire. Taken to a nearby medical facility, his condition worsened when infection set in, and he was medically evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Japan where he died of peritonitis on April 19, 1968. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and SP4 Rios’ Army Presidential Unit Citation; obituary from the Desert News (Salt Lake City, UT), April 30, 1968, courtesy of Madeline Lowry, Reference Assistant, Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, ID]