THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. While all deaths in Vietnam are tragic that you died just six days after your 22nd birthday is especially so. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear Cpl William Sebast, Thank you for your service as a Military Policeman. Your 76th birthday is soon, but so is your 54th anniversary, sigh. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Happy New Year. Time moves quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Your friend Lou and I are going to visit your grave tomorrow. He is so nice to come with me as I have a fear of falling. You were alter boys in the 1960's. So hard to believe you have been dead for 52 years. You were a guard (MP) at the us embassy during TET (1-31-68) Peace and I will stop and buy a white rose for you.

With loving thoughts of Sebast
fellow co worker, Carlene

Shortly after midnight on January 31, 1968, 19 Viet Cong sappers from the elite C-10 Sapper Battalion gathered at a Viet Cong safe house in a car repair shop at 59 Phan Thanh Gian Street in Saigon to distribute weapons and conduct final preparations for an attack on the U.S. Embassy. The unit set off in a small truck and a taxi towards central Saigon. As the vehicles came down Mac Dinh Chi Street with their lights off after curfew, they were spotted by a Vietnamese police guard post north of the embassy, but rather than trying to stop the vehicles, the police instead took cover. As the taxi turned from Mac Dinh Chi Street onto Thong Nhut Boulevard, the occupants opened fired on the two military police (MPs) guarding the night gate. The MPs, SP4 Charles L. Daniel and PFC William E. Sebast, returned fire, closed and locked the steel gate and radioed that they were under attack. At 02:47 hours the Viet Cong blew a small hole in the perimeter wall on Thong Nhut Boulevard and gained access to the embassy compound. The first two Viet Cong that crawled through the hole and into the grounds were shot and killed by SP4 Daniel and PFC Sebast in their guard post at the Mac Dinh Chi Street entrance. Daniel radioed, "They're coming in! They're coming in! Help me! Help me!" before the radio went silent. Daniel and Sebast were themselves shot and killed by the Viet Cong. Inside the embassy, the Viet Cong opened fire on the Chancery building with Type 56 assault rifles and B-40 rocket-propelled grenades. An MP jeep patrol responded to the calls for help from Daniel and Sebast but as they approached the embassy they were met by automatic weapons fire from the Viet Cong that were outside the wall, killing SGT Johnie B. Thomas and SFC Owen E. Mebust. In the embassy grounds, the Viet Cong were unsure of their next move as both of the sapper team's leaders, Bay Tuyen and Ut Nho, had both been killed early in the attack by Daniel and Sebast after they entered the embassy grounds. The Viet Cong were armed with more than 40 pounds of C-4 explosive and could easily have blasted their way into the Chancery had they been ordered to do so. Instead they took positions in or near the circular planters around the Chancery and returned fire at the growing numbers of Americans shooting at them. At 04:20, General William Westmoreland ordered the 716th MP Battalion to clear the embassy as their first priority. Lacking armored vehicles and helicopters, the MPs moved in more troops to cordon off the Embassy. The tactical situation was confused by darkness and the poor communications within the Chancery and between the Chancery and the MPs and Marines outside the Embassy compound. Marine Corporal James C. Marshall climbed the roof of a small building in the Consular compound and was firing on Viet Cong in the Embassy compound, when he was hit by a rocket fragment. He remained in place firing on the Viet Cong until he was shot and killed. He would be the last American killed at the Embassy that day. As dawn broke on the morning of January 31st, the hole that the Viet Cong had blown in the wall to gain access to the Embassy compound was located. At the same time, MPs had finally managed to shoot off the locks of the front gate on Thong Nhut Boulevard and rammed the gates open with a jeep. The MPs and Marines charged through the open gate into the Embassy grounds and within a few minutes, they easily killed all of the few surviving Viet Cong for most of them by then were already dead or dying in the Embassy garden from the prolonged firefight. At the same time, a helicopter carrying troops from the 101st Airborne Division landed on the roof and proceeded to sweep the Chancery building, finding no Viet Cong inside. By 09:00, the Embassy was declared secure. Of the 19 Viet Cong fighters that attacked the building, 18 had been killed and one wounded fighter was captured. (Image is of the plaque commemorating the 4 MPs and 1 Marine who died defending the U.S. Embassy in Saigon on January 31, 1968) [Taken from Wikipedia.org]