THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrances from those who wear/wore your MIA bracelet are touching and reflect their admiration and respect for you. It remains my fervent hope you will be returned home after the passage of so many years.

I was in the Marines for a cup of coffee in 1989 before a medical discharge. I was at Hodge Army Navy Supply in Marietta GA in 1995 and reached into a barrel of bracelets and his was the one I grabbed. Only 6 weeks off from my birthday in 1968;as well. It never came off either. Sadly it was pulled off at a job site about 7 years ago. I've never forgotten his name or story though. Semper Fi DD

I find it hard to believe that Bruce would have told anyone he was going to take a dump, as he just wanted to avoid the tanks.
It should be noted that Bruce told me that his dad was pissed at him for dropping out of school his senior year after the football season was over. Bruce joined the Marines, and he wanted his dad to be proud of him.
The next morning was spent collected our dead and wounded Marines. I tried to pick up Willie myself and could not. I just starred at his lifeless body with his eyes wide open and realized that could have been me. There were no wounds above his waist.
We found Bruce's pack and boots minus the shoelaces. The food was gone and his latest letters and pictures he received a week earlier were scattered on the ground.
I burned the pictures and letters.
We did find the burned bodies of maybe 6 enemy soldiers that were completely black from the napalm dropped on them. The bunkers that we were attacked from were well concealed and well-constructed.
A few hours later as we were moving out, I was still last man. We were maybe a few hundred yards from the bunker when I saw movement from a tree line to my southeast. Our rocket leader tapped me on the shoulder to show me another group was dragging what I thought at the time was their mortar base. i wanted to take a few shots at this group, as i was sure this was the enemy returning to their village. A Marine always needed permission to fire his weapon. I realized our objective was still klicks away. I'm sure to this day that one of the enemies saw me and waved to me.
It was days later that I realized what they were dragging back to their Village could have been Bruce, as they took his poncho.
I've always wanted to go back to that Village to find out what happened to Bruce because the Villagers knew. I did volunteer for a 2nd tour thinking I could go find Bruce. I found out that a 20-year-old Sergent had no more authority than an 18-year-old PFC in the Marines.
I swore that I would never rely on anyone as much as I did Bruce and Willie.
I wanted to reach out to Bruce and Willie's family but what could I say. Bruce did tell me that he had an older sister that he was close to.
Not a day go by that I don't think Bruce and Willy.

Now we were going in a northwest direction, and I was the last man in our squad. I remember actually seeing Villagers close up. This was my first encounter with Villagers close up. We only saw them as a distance along route 9. These young Villagers were running up to us saying " ZUBUY'. They had actual real candy bars. I Rember a few Marines from Mike or Headquarters stopped and bought treats.
It was strange that a few hundred yards northwest of the Village that a bunch of Mama-sans appeared and chased the kids back to the Village. In retrospect these women new we were running into a trap. They let my Company get slaughtered that day. Now I know why we burned down some of the Villages.
A few hundred yards later there was a loud boom. It looked like Gerald "Willy" Williams ran into a trap. There was a lot of gun fire, and we started receiving artillery from the north. I remember our platoon sergeant yelling stop the shelling to no avail. This shelling continued for at least the longest 15 minutes of my life. We were caught on in the open with only a 2-foot berm between me and an exploded artillery round. Finally, our AO arrived, and the shelling stopped. There was no place for myself and the Marines around me to go. When the Phantom jets arrived before sunset and dropped cannisters of napalm on the bunkers in front of us it took our breath away.
The ARVN troops arrived after dark with all their glitter and gold. They had actual packs of American cigarettes that they generously passed around.
The 4 Marines that dug holes with me that night was Bruce, Sherman Shook and Jim Miller. Bruce always dug the deepest hole in our group. Not that night he just saw his best friend get blown up. Gerald Williams was the smartest Marine in our group. No one in our group was going to sleep that night. It should be noted that Bruce was NOT wounded up to this point, somewhere in the night we heard tanks moving up. Bruce jumped up and said we have to move. I listened very carefully and realized the tanks were coming from our rear from the south, so they had to be ours. Bruce and Sherman grabbed their gear and headed away from the tanks towards the bunkers to our north. Jim Miller and I tried to stop them, but they kept going. Sherman came back a few minutes later and said the tanks stopped. He said Bruce kept going a was outside our perimeter. I fully expected to see Bruce that night, The story goes that Bruce told our most northern post he was going to take a dump.

I was with Bruce the night he went missing. There are so many untrue stories about his disappearance on the night of April 30, 1968.
The following is to set the record straight:
Bruce was a small yet very strong Marine. Bruce spent his last 5 months keeping this FNG alive in Nam. I learned a lot from Brucy.
On the day of April 30, 1968, our squad was filling sandbags at a finger off the front lines at Rock Pile. We always had two guys on alert and the other two would fill and pack the sandbags with helmets, flak jackets and rifles nearby.
A couple of months earlier we had heard that an Army outpost was overrun near KheSahn and the NVA used tanks in their assault. This outpost was a few miles from Laos and the DMZ.
It was early afternoon on April 30, 1968, that we heard a General had just landed inside our compound. This was unheard of. A few minutes later we were told to pack up our gear and be ready to "saddle up". Shortly later we receive enough crats to last 3 days. This would not be a normal patrol.
We got word that a sister Company was pinned down and "tanks were involved". We were not told these were OUR tanks and many of thought our sister Company was pinned down by NVA tanks.
My squad loaded onto the first CH53 which us 'Grunts': called the "Jolly Green Giant". It was my first time on a chopper this size. I was to be point man as usual and Lt Harrington told me to stay close. I always walked point my first 5 months because I was expendable. On this day our squad and platoon would be point for the entire Lima Company. i was also told that Mike Company would be coming up on our left flank.
We were greeted by 2 senior officers when we touched down. These officers pointed us to a southwest azimuth. It should be noted that my dad taught me to read a map and compass at an early age. My dad was an Arkansas farmer that could not read or write but was an avid hunter that was great at directions. I still have the compass that LT Harrington gave me a week before April 30th, 1968.
We were moving at a fast pace as we wanted to arrive at our objective before dark.
We were only a few hundred yards out when we got word to 'reverse formation". What this meant in the past was I was simply pass the 2nd Marine etc. until I was point again. Lt Harrington stopped me and said not this time, as there were in his words "Generals in the field". So, Gerald Williams became point and Bruce would have been 3rd as Lt Harrington was always 2nd with his radio man close by.