THE WALL OF FACES

Corporal Kenneth Ray Bradley, Served with Company B, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force.

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

Never forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

I have been told about you and your sacrifice since I was a young child. I met you I am sure but was very young so I have no memory of meeting you. I have visited your memorial at The Wall. Our family has a history of military service, you would be proud of your 3rd cousin, my son,, he served in your Marine Corps for 9 years and had 3 combat tours. You have many fellow veterans who followed your example by serving our country, myself included. Your memory lives on!!

On the early morning of February 6, 1968, the seventh day of the Tet Offensive, a five-man U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoon patrol, CAP-B4, was ambushed by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) 400 yards from Hill 41, south of the Tuy Loan Bridge in Quang Nam Province, RVN. Pinned down by an enemy force estimated at 300 men, the patrol requested help from Marines of Delta Company, 1/7 on Hill 41. Two squads of infantrymen set out to reach the besieged CAP Marines, but they, too, became pinned down near the hamlet of La Chau. At 7:45 AM, they radioed the hill to request immediate support. A larger reaction force left Hill 41’s gate at 8:00 AM, with a single M48A3 Patton tank, call sign Bravo-34, from 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division. Fifteen minutes later, this force was ambushed by NVA concealed in a tree line near the hamlet. Under intense enemy fire, the Marines dove into a gully alongside the road and became pinned down. Bravo-34 pulled up to provide fire support, sending several 90mm rounds into the trees. Unbeknownst to the tank crew and dismounted infantrymen, an NVA rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) team lay hidden behind a small pagoda off the side of the road in La Chau. At approximately 8:30 AM, they fired from point-blank range at Bravo-34, hitting the left side of the turret, killing a Navy corpsman, HM3 Larry W. Stull, who was riding on the tank. The projectile penetrated the hull, igniting a 90mm round inside. The loader, LCPL Nolan L. Simmons, was killed instantly. The tank commander and another crewman were both seriously burned but escaped the now fully engulfed tank. The tank driver, CPL Kenneth R. Bradley, shielded from the exploding RPG but burned on the left side by the flames, was able to exit the tank and run for the gully; however, before he could make it, he was cut down by a NVA sniper. Nineteen Americans died trying to save the five-man CAP patrol. The battle lasted until nightfall when the Marines were able to safely pull back. Only two of the original patrol were rescued alive. Bravo-34 burned for two days before a tank retriever towed it back to Da Nang. Stull was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for valor. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, usmcvta.org, and information provided by Frank Rocha Jr. (September 2002) at vvmf.org]