THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. You died at 18 years of age. I am 74 and have lived a long and fulfilling life. It is tragic you never had that same opportunity. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear PFC Royce Scoggins, Thank you for your service as a Machine Gunner. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Never forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

Royce and I where step brothers, but lived as blood brothers and Marine Brothers, RIP Semper Fi Marine, Oorah!

PFC Royce Glenn Scoggins (18) of McKinney, Texas, was born 2 October, 1947, and joined the Marines in March 15, 1965 at the age of seventeen. Pfc. Scoggins was the son of Mrs. Eula Mae Mitchell of Tioga and Glenn Scoggins of McKinney. After being trained as a machine gunner, he arrived in Vietnam on 27 January, 1966, aboard the he USS Paul Revere, along with a fleet of US Navy ships, off the coast of Quang Ngai Province, in north central South Vietnam. Royce was a member of Weapons Platoon, India Co., 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. India Company had landed with 3rd Battalion in Vietnam at the end of January during Operation Double Eagle. On March 4, Operation UTAH was launched under the command of Task Force Delta in the Son Thinh District of Quang Ngai Province where the Marines would encounter elements of the 21st NVA Regiment. India Company was helicopter-ed to the area of operations the evening of 4 March, and the Marines moved forward on their search and destroy mission at first light on March 5. While sweeping through the Chau Ngai village complex, India Company engaged elements of the 21st NVA Regiment in a battle that would last for more than 8 hours. The enemy was in well prepared defensive positions with fields of fire that prevented the forward movement of Marines without taking casualties. By nightfall the fighting slacked, 17 men of Company were killed during the battle and many more were wounded. On Saturday 5 March, 1966, PFC Scoggins was killed in action as he operated his M60 machine gun in a heated battle. In that three-day battle, 97 Marines were killed, 278 wounded, with over 600 enemy killed. Royce is interred in the City Cemetery at Tioga, Texas, and his name is listed on the WALL, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, in Washington, DC, at Panel 5E, Row 124.