THE WALL OF FACES

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

Dear Sp4 John Smith, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Spring has begun, and it's Lent. Time moves quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Patrol Base Diamond III was established on April 14, 1969, by the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment during Operation Toan Thang III, a U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) operation conducted between February 17 and October 31, 1969, designed to keep pressure on Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces in III Corps. Diamond III was located six miles southwest of Go Dau Ha in Tay Ninh Province, RVN, and one mile east of the Parrot's Beak near the Cambodian border. It was a well-fortified duplicate of Patrol Base Diamond II. While manned by U.S Army infantry and artillery units, the base was actually constructed U.S. Navy Sea Bee Team 0913 from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 9 (NMBC-9). At 3:00 AM the morning following its construction, three battalions of NVA soldiers launched a heavy weapons and ground attack against Diamond III. The base received a total of 350 rocket-propelled grenades and 150 82mm mortar rounds. The two sections of howitzers at Diamond III fired 350 HE rounds (high explosive) and lowered their cannons nearly horizontal to fire twelve M546 anti-personnel Beehive rounds packed with metal flechettes directly at the swarming enemy troops. Nearby artillery units fired indirect support of more than 500 HE and 40 Firecracker antipersonnel fragmentation rounds with delayed-reaction detonations in an attempt to ward off the attack. Enemy losses were listed at 228 NVA dead with an additional estimated 200 additional casualties. Eight enemy were captured, one who told his American captors the Communist battle plan as he understood it: "We were going to overrun the base, then march to Saigon." Forty individual and forty-two crew-served enemy weapons were recovered. American losses were fifteen killed. They included (from 2nd Bn, 27th Infantry) SP4 Billy C. Alston, SP4 Stanley A. Carter, SP4 John G. Glassey, SP4 Michael E. Harr, SP4 Willie B. Jacobs, SP4 Lawrence O. Keller Jr., SP4 Jimmy D. Lester, SP4 Ralph Maynard, SP4 Anthony A. Proietti, SP4 Peter T. Rasmussen, SP4 John L. Smith, SP4 James W. Taylor, and SP4 Larry P. Tregre; and (from 1st Bn, 8th Arty) PFC James W. Derbyshire and PFC William F. Hitchcock. In the wake of the losses, several promotions occurred posthumously: Carter, Keller, Lester, and Proietti were advanced to Sergeant. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, virtualwall.org, and wikipedia.org; also, “Charged-up Reds paying heavily.” Pacific Stars & Stripes, April 17, 1969 at stripes.com]

As your 74th birthday approaches, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

Such wonderful memories of our years playing neighborhood baseball at Smith's field. Hide and go seek and so much more in our Southwest Canton neighborhood. RIP Johnnie.