THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Sp4 Dwight Timberlake, Thank you for your service as an Armor Reconnaissance Specialist. The 56th anniversary of the start of your tour is in 10 days. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Today is the 58th anniversary of the 2nd Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it still needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Specialist Four Dwight Elmer Timberlake, Served with the 1st Platoon, K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

SP4 Dwight E. Timberlake, SGT Alfred Lee, SP5 William P. Centers Jr., and SP4 Larry A. Williamson were members of 1st Platoon, K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry. On May 21, 1967, their unit was conducting a normal resupply run along National Route 1 from the Gia Ray Rock Quarry to the junction on National Route 1 and Interprovincial Route 2 when they were ambushed by Viet Cong with RPG’s, recoilless rifle, and small arms. Two M113 armored personnel carriers (APC), ACAV number K-17 and ACAV number K-18, were the last two vehicles in the column. SGT Lee, the vehicle commander of K-17, received the distress message of “ambush, ambush, ambush” just as he spotted a large number of VC on his left and alerted his crew with the words “VC on the left”. The crew immediately began firing right and left. Lee saw another APC, K-13, take its initial recoilless hit in front of him. Thinking the vehicle lost, he ordered the driver SP4 Timberlake to move on through the ambush. K-18 followed K-17. As the two ACAV’s passed K-14 firing from its position to the south of the road, K-18 sustained a recoilless hit that disabled the vehicle. It ground to a halt directly west of K-14 and took several more recoilless hits. There were no survivors from K-18. K-17 kept moving. SP4 Force, the platoon medic, was manning machinegun. He saw VC to the south of the road firing small arms and several VC behind a barn about 75 meters from the road firing crew served automatic weapons. He engaged all targets he could see and saw several VC fall. Civilians were lying all over the fields. The small arms fire was extremely heavy and accurate, causing Force to fire through his gun shield and allowing him only a very limited view of the battleground. In moving a distance of 400 meters, the ACAV was hit 4 times by RPG-2 rounds. K-17 had not suffered much damage, but the shrapnel from the last blast had caused Force’s machinegun to malfunction and superficially wounded most of the crew members. The driver halted the ACAV temporarily. Force applied immediate action to his weapon as SP5 Centers, the platoon mechanic, provided covering fire with his M-16 rifle. Force finally gave up on the machinegun and grabbed his M-16 to engage the numerous VC to the south. Over the din of battle, Force heard SP4 Williamson, the right machine gunner, cry “Hand me ammo!” Force handed him a box of 7.62mm machinegun ammunition but Williamson said “no, M-16”. His machinegun was inoperable also. The driver moved the ACAV out through the gauntlet again, dodging and weaving to avoid the hail of anti-tank rockets directed at the track. SGT Lee was still firing his caliber .50 machinegun to the left and right of the road, and Force, Williamson, and Centers were blazing away with their rifles, while SP4 Wheeler, an ex-cook newly assigned to the platoon, handed them ammo from inside the vehicle. However, K-17 kept sustaining hits. Williamson was hit in the stomach with a burst of shrapnel from an RPG-2 round that penetrated the right side of the track. Finally an RPG-2 round penetrated the driver’s compartment, killing the driver Timberlake and SGT Lee. The ACAV stopped. Force leaped up to the top of the TC hatch to attempt first aid on Lee, but was knocked off the track by another RPG-2 round that hit the front of the TC cupola. He was slightly wounded by shrapnel, but still held grimly on to his rifle. He tried to regain the ACAV but could not because of the heavy volume of small arms fire directed against it. Force crawled into the ditch paralleling the road and stated crawling south looking for other GI’s. He heard the ACAV take at least three more RPG-2 hits. Force remained alone in the ditch desperately hoping he would not be discovered by the VC until the relief column arrived. He then returned to K-17 and found Wheeler still alive in the vehicle and gave him first aid. Centers’ body was found 25 meters to the rear of the ACAV riddled by small arms fire. [Taken from 11thcavnam.com and coffeltdatabase.org]

Dear SP4 Dwight Elmer Timberlake, 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, Sir

Curt Carter

Dwight is buried at Glen Eden Memorial Park in Livonia, MI. PH