THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrances from your Johns Hopkins classmates are touching and reflect their admiration and respect for you. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

Dear Lt Peter Tripp, Thank you for your service as an Infantry Unit Commander with the 1st Cavalry. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is Agent Orange Awareness Month. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it still needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Peter was in my ROTC unit at Johns Hopkins and from my hometown in Connecticut.
He was a very good man with an infectious smile. I think of him often. A plaque was installed in his honor at the Veterans Museum in Centralia, Washington.

Peter was my cousin, two years behind me at Johns Hopkins. I didn’t know him well. Nevertheless,every year on Memorial Day, I toss a carnation into the Pawtucket River in Westerly Rhode Island in his memory.

LZ Grant was an isolated outpost of the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, acting as a tactical control point and logistical supply area for the maneuver elements of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry. Located one kilometer from the Cambodian border in Tay Ninh Province, RVN, it was near a trail down which the North Vietnamese Army funneled supplies and personnel to fight in South Vietnam. At half past midnight on March 8, 1969, the North Vietnamese Army struck LZ Grant, announcing the battle when a 122mm rocket with a delay fuse arched across the sky and slammed into the sandbagged command bunker. The big projectile sliced through three layers of sandbags and detonated inside. The battalion operations officer was outside the bunker checking on the readiness of the base defense when the rocket hit. He raced back and found it demolished. When he looked through the smoke and dust, he could see LTC Peter L. Gorvad dead in his chair at the map board. On the east side of the LZ beyond the second or third row of wire, five Americans from D Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, comprised a listening post. Situated in a large depression in the ground, 10 to 12 feet in diameter, they held their position when the onslaught began. Just before daylight, they decided to try to make it back to the LZ. They got half way back when they ran into NVA. Outnumbered, PFC Charles D. Snyder and PFC Larry E. Evans were hit with very heavy fire and killed. The other three made a mad dash to the LZ, running in a crouched position and made it. At the entrance of the LZ, enemy Bangalore torpedoes blew a hole in the gate as B-40 rockets screamed in from hidden spots, and mortar fire rained down on the landing zone. The NVA launched a human wave assault, sending masses soldiers through the ruptured gate. Another D Company member, 1LT Grant H. Henjyoji, leaped out of his bunker with a M16 rifle to confront the enemy. He was killed almost instantly. The rifle company that defended the camp fought so well that most of the Claymore mines ringing the camp were not needed and were not fired. Air strikes and Spooky gunships peppered the NVA as they charged, and the camp's defenders lowered their artillery pieces and fired point-blank into the on-rushing enemy. At least six enemy made it through two rings of concertina barbwire to die less than 30 feet from the guns of the Cavalry troopers. None made it through the final defense. At 6:15 AM, the enemy withdrew, leaving behind 157 dead and two prisoners of war. U.S. losses were 14 killed in action and 31 others wounded. The lost Americans included Gorvad, Snyder, Evans, and Henjyoji; also CPT John P. Emrath, 1LT Peter L. Tripp, CPT William R. Black, SGT Walter B. Hoxworth, CPL Vincent F. Guerrero, SP4 John R. Hornsby, SP4 Thomas J. Roach, PFC Glenn R. Stair, Akron, PFC Roy D. Wimmer, and SP4 Gordon C. Murray. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, virtualwall.org, and “GIs Hurl Back Charge by N. Viet Battalion.” Pacific Stars & Stripes, March 10, 1969; “Gentle Warrior.” The Oregonian, May 28, 2000; and information provided by Bob Jones at 12thcav.us]