THE WALL OF FACES

Dear PFC Kenneth Varney, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart . Autumn has begun. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it still needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Thank you for stepping up and answering your country's call. Rest easy knowing you will never be forgotten.

A Company, Second Battalion, 8th Infantry, had a series of contacts that eventually led to an engagement with a North Vietnamese Army battalion on April 30 - May 1, 1967, in a large, well-fortified base area between the Landing Zone Oasis and Plei Me camp in Pleiku Province, RVN. The NVA battalion had infiltrated before the division's redeployment and was preparing for offensive operations in this area north of the Ia Muer River. It was during this period that the 2d Battalion, 8th Infantry, converted to a Mechanized Infantry Battalion. On April 30th, a dismounted platoon from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry, ambushed a NVA platoon moving on a trail. They pursued the survivors into a bunker complex; but heavy enemy machine gun fire prevented them from penetrating into the position. During the night, artillery and TAC Air continually fired on the bunker area as the remainder of Company A, which had joined with the platoon, withdrew 1000 meters and requested APC's and tanks. The next day, with two tanks from the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry in the lead, the mounted company moved toward the area of the preceding day's contact. They drew fire from their flank and reacted by moving towards the enemy fires and into the well-concealed base camp of the 2nd Battalion, 95B NVA Regiment. The enemy battalion had established a secret base from which to operate during the impending monsoon season. The base area was well camouflaged with no trails leading into it and no fire lanes cut. There were no visible signs of the enemy anywhere in the vicinity of the camp. As the tanks and APC's fired cannister rounds and machine guns, the infantry periodically dismounted and moved through dense undergrowth to neutralize bunkers with hand grenades. Sweeps of the area the following day produced 133 NVA bodies, numerous weapons and documents at a cost of only three US lives for both day's activities. Most of the NVA bodies were found where they had fallen, indicating the enemy unit had suffered heavy casualties that prevented policing of the battlefield. The three lost Americans were PFC David H. Bass and SSG Barry J. Short on April 30th, and PFC Kenneth A. Varney on May 1st. Short was posthumously promoted to Platoon Sergeant. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and redwarriors.us]

Dear PFC Kenneth Arthur Varney, 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

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heroes lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers