THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

Dear Sgt Russell Wagner, Thank you for your service as a Rifleman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Yesterday was the 530th anniversary of Columbus in the New World. Times flies. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

May those who served never be forgotten. Rest in peace SGT. Wagner, I salute your brave soul. My heart goes out to you and your family/ Semper Fidelis!

At 8:00 AM on January 28, 1967, Company M, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, conducted a helicopter assault into a landing zone (LZ) in the vicinity of Nui Dang in Quang Ngai Province, RVN, as part of Operation DeSoto. During the insertion, sporadic sniper fire was received from the periphery of the LZ. The Company moved west and east to secure the adjacent villages of Vinh Binh (1) and Truong Sanh. On occupying Truong Sanh, villagers informed the Marines that a large Viet Cong force had abandoned the village and moved north to Tan Tu (2). Company M maneuvered one platoon and the command group to the west side the Song Quan River. The point element then crossed the river near Tan Tu (2) where they became engaged in a battle with an undetermined number of Viet Cong in well-concealed, mutually-supporting, fortified bunkers. As Company M advanced on Tan Tu (2), they were hit first by sniper fire and the automatic weapons fire from entrenched Viet Cong in the village. The Marines withdrew, called in artillery and airstrikes and attacked again, but were driven back a second time by heavy fire including .50 caliber machine gun which precluded the evacuation of several wounded Marines from open areas by helicopter. The Company waited until the cover of darkness to secure an LZ and remove friendly casualties. They then repositioned units in night defensive positions on the west side of the Song Quan River. Naval gunfire, artillery, and fixed-wing strikes were placed on the fortified hamlet during the night in preparation for continuation of the attack the following day. Four Company M Marines were killed in the day’s engagement along with two Naval corpsmen attached to the Company. The lost Marines were CPL Jackya K. Grant, SSGT Fred L. Pedersen, CPL Pedro A. Swenson, and SGT Russell M. Wagner; the lost Navy personnel included HM3 William R. Broad and HN Joe F. Kelley. HM3 Broad was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for bravery under fire while attempting to assist wounded Marines. Another Marine, SSGT Clarence I. Henry, the crew chief on a CH-46A (#152566) helicopter from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 (HMM 262), was killed after suffering a gunshot to his right eye when the aircraft came under fire while loading medical evacuees and KIA’s in a rice paddy LZ. SSGT Henry was hit after he moved his M60 machinegun from the right side of the helicopter to the left to answer the hostile fire. On the morning of January 29th, Companies I and M assaulted Tan Tu (2). Despite suffering casualties from long-range sniper fire, the village was barely defended, and the Marines secured it by 1:30 PM. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, popasmoke.com, and Command Chronology, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines for January 1967]

History remembers you.