THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever…

Dear Cpl Billy Strickland, Thank you for your service as an Automotive Weapons Crewman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Memorial Day weekend , and we honor you. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Rest in Peace Brother. You gave your life coming to the rescue of fellow service men. Your actions this day those many years ago will never be forgotten..

On January 24, 1968, elements of the 320th North Vietnamese Army Division, an elite unit and veterans of the 1954 Dien Bien Phu campaign and newly arrived in the Demilitarized Zone sector, ambushed a U.S. Marine "Rough Rider" convoy. The convoy was on a routine artillery resupply mission from Dong Ha to Camp Carroll. It consisted of three trucks and a jeep armed with quad .50-caliber machine guns. At 1:30 PM, when the trucks were about to turn into the Camp Carroll access road, some 3,000 meters above the Marine base, the North Vietnamese sprang their ambush. The enemy soldiers opened up with small arms, mortars, machine guns, and recoilless rifles, immediately immobilizing all four vehicles. Using their weapons, including the quad .50, to defend themselves, and taking what cover they could, the Marines in the convoy called for assistance. The 4th Marines sent a reaction force from Camp Carroll consisting of a platoon from Company H, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines; two tanks, one a flame tank, from Company B, 3rd Tank Battalion; and two U.S. Army M42 Dusters from Battery C, 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery. The North Vietnamese, however, were waiting for the reaction column. An enemy gunner fired on the lead tank, stopping it with a recoilless rifle round and killing the reaction force commander, CAPT Daniel W. Kent, who was also the tank company commander. Again, the Marines fought back and called for support. When two UH-1E gunships appeared overhead around 6:30 PM, the North Vietnamese troops broke contact and disappeared. A second relief column of two more Dusters and two trucks armed with quad .50s arrived from Dong Ha and assisted with the evacuation of the dead and wounded. The Marines suffered casualties of six men dead and forty-four wounded. The lost Marines included CAPT Kent, PFC Gilbert Ayala Jr., LCPL Gilbert Diaz, PFC Clayton M. Holland, CPL Robert J. McCarl, and CPL John H. Neal Jr. One U.S. Army Duster crewman, PFC Billy L. Strickland, was also killed. Three enemy dead were confirmed. Not only did the vehicles of the original convoy require extensive repairs, but two of the Dusters and the tank hit by the RPG round also sustained damage. Strickland, the Army Duster crewman, was posthumously promoted to Corporal. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and the publication “U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Defining Year 1968]

Corporal Billy Lewis Strickland, Served with Battery B, 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery Regiment, 108th Artillery Group, First Field Force, United States Army Vietnam.