THE WALL OF FACES

The Freedom Hill Recreation Center was located just west of Da Nang Airbase in Quang Nam Province, RVN. The center had a large Post Exchange (PX), snack bars, and transient barracks for the 6,000 – 7,000 off duty Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen it accommodated each day. Freedom Hill sponsored and scheduled USO and other professional entertainment groups at its 5000-seat amphitheater and ran an indoor 35mm motion picture theater and fully equipped bowling lanes. Cpl Steven K. Brandenburg was a metal worker assigned to the Ordnance Maintenance Company, 1st Force Service Regiment, at Camp Books at Red Beach near Da Nang. Brandenburg received permission to attend a movie at Freedom Hill on his day off and was last seen at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning on August 17, 1968, when he checked out of Camp Books. Two days later, his body was pulled from the Da Nang River harbor with a gunshot wound to the forehead. The circumstances of Brandenburg’s death were not released by the Marine Corps nor any details of an investigation into the incident. When a final casualty report was issued, the loss was attributed “accidental homicide.” A volunteer who dropped out of college to serve, Brandenburg was 21 years old. [Sourced at coffeltdatabase.org and thewall-usa.com]

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Semper Fi, Marine

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. May you rest in eternal peace.

CPL Steven K. Brandenburg was a metal worker assigned to the Ordinance Maintenance Company, Maintenance Battalion, 1st Force Service Regiment, Force Logistics Command, III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF). On August 19, 1968, CPL Brandenburg died in Quang Nam Province, RVN, after suffering a fatal gunshot wound to the head under unknown circumstances. The Marines coded his death an accidental homicide. A 1990 newspaper account of his death reported that he was pulled from a river with his hands tied behind his back and had suffered a gunshot wound to the back of his head. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and an article from the September 16, 1990 edition of the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN), courtesy of Edna Marlatt, Reference & Genealogy, Logansport Cass County Public Library (LCCP), Logansport, IN]