THE WALL OF FACES

Some may think you are forgotten
Though on earth you are no more
But in our memory you are with us
As you always were before….

I served with LTC Suarez from Jan 1968 until I rotated home in November and he was reassigned to be Province Senior Advisor at Phuoc Long Province, East of Binh Long Province where we had been headquartered at An Loc. LTC Suarez was Deputy Province Senior Advisor and I was CPT Roy E Martin, Team Admin Officer and overseer of team advising the Vietnamese Admin and Logistics Company. He was my direct boss and we worked in the same building. I was just outside his office. We quartered within 30 feet of each other. LTC Suarez was near to being promoted to Colonel. I thought that would have been before his death. LTC Suarez was smart, effective, and very nice. No one had a bad word to say about him. I am very happy to reach out to his family now. I have wished to before but had no venue. ALL of you can be most proud of him. I am. He was cool, calm, and collected when we were attacked in our compound with mortar fire many times. Our team MACV 81, then redesignated 47 was made up of personnel from each service. Army, of course, Air Force to advise the hospital, State Department Personnel, a civilian police Advisor, USAID, Army Signal to keep us in Commo, even Navy Seabees to run our generators. We were as far North as Route 13 went as the enemy controlled it North of An Loc. We "advised" on everything the Province did, including government and RF/PF forces (like National Guard). We had a District Team at Loc Ninh to the North and Chon Thanh to the South. Binh Long was a large Province and the French were still there running many miles of rubber plantations. The raw rubber was flown out from an airstrip at Loc Ninh. We were only about 4 miles from the Cambodian Border North and West of us. I learned a few years ago that the main HQS for all NVA Operations in South Vietnam was just across the border in Cambodia, about 4 miles from us. When the N Vietnamese made their final thrust to conquer S Vietnam they came down Route 1 from the DMZ to Saigon and tried to come through An Loc but S Vietnam kept sending up forces to fight them and the battle raged for 2 months. It is on YouTube as "The Seige of An Loc". A Province was to the National Government as a State is to our government. The last casualty of the war was a Colonel, Province Senior Advisor at An Loc, after the Peace Treaty had been signed. /s/ Maj Ret Roy E Martin Elizabethtown KY 42701, 107 Mayapple Ln, 270 763 8444.

Dear LTC Raymond Suarez, Thank you for your service as an Infantry Unit Commander. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Memorial Day just passed to honor you. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Today is Memorial Day 2016, thank you Dad for beliving that everyone can make the world better and your willingness to take that idea and put it into action in a country far from home. I am proud to be an army brat, proud to be your daughter and proud to say your sacrifice made a difference not only to the people you served but to your family.

Dear LTC Raymond Suarez Jr, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter