THE WALL OF FACES

On the morning of March 2, 1968, the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division “Manchus” were preparing for a ground assault on an area of previous contact when Charlie Company was ambushed by an estimated reinforced Viet Cong company at a bridge on Route 248 by the Quoi Xuah hamlet close to Hoc Mon village, fourteen kilometers (8.4 miles) northwest of Saigon in Gia Dinh Province, RVN. The ninety-two members of Charlie Company were rushing along the road without flank security to catch up with the rest of the battalion when they ran into the ambush. Within eight minutes, forty-nine Americans were dead or dying and twenty-eight others wounded. The enemy force, concealed in prepared positions, employed small arms, automatic weapons, and Claymore mines. Gunships, artillery, and air strikes supported the Manchus but sniper fire by rear guard elements prevented Alpha, Bravo, and Delta companies from reinforcing the besieged Charlie Company for much of the day. The lost U.S. personnel included (C-4/9 Manchus) PFC Jose L. Alvarez-Tapia, PFC Gerald L. Avery, SP4 Charles E. Bonds, PFC Harlan R. Brandts, SGT Jerry W. Byers, SP4 William B. Cawley Jr., SP4 Alvin L. Cayson, SP4 Nicholas J. Cutinha (posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor), SP4 Bruce Eliot Jr., PFC Gary V. Frazier, PFC Michael D. Frost, PFC Raymond L. Gallagher, SP4 Cal D. Johnson, PFC Lawrence Johnson, PFC Jack J. Jordan Jr., SGT Lee R. Lanier, SSG Charlie F. Lee, PFC James R. Mathis, PFC Robert J. McGee, PFC Charles E. Melott, PFC Leonard D. Moore, SP4 Thomas L. Mork, 2LT James F. O'Laughlin, PFC Kenneth L. Oldham (died of wounds 03/03/1968), PFC Roy D. Page, SP4 William Rassano, PFC Jose A. Reyes, PFC Michael R. Rivers, PFC Ronald L. Salvani, SGT Willard Skaggs Jr., PFC Clifford G. Stockton, CPL Danny G. Swazick, SP4 Warren L. Tall, SP4 John M. Thompson, SP4 Carrel J. Titsworth, SGT Walter C. Velvet Jr., PFC Larry H. Walden, SP4 Gary W. Watkins, PFC Darrell E. Wheeler, SP4 Virgil L. Williams, SP4 Danny S. Young, and PFC Willard F. Young; (HHC-4/9) medics SP5 Ronald A. Slane, PFC Paul E. West, and PFC Joseph J. Williams; (K Trp, 3rd Sqdn, 11th Armored Cavalry) SP4 Barry L. Moyer; (A Btry, 7th Bn, 11th Arty) SGT Kenneth W. Winget; and (A Co, 65th Engineers) PFC Larry A. Widener and PFC Aristides Sosa (posthumously promoted to Corporal and awarded the DSC). Enemy losses were put at twenty dead. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and manchu.org]

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

PFC Larry Huston Walden

Larry Walden was born March 18, 1947, to Clarence M Walden and Margie Hammett, Columbus, Mississippi. Little is know of his early childhood, except he had an Aunt Grace Walden, and Uncle Chester Walden.

Larry was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967, and started his tour in Vietnam with the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, Company C, 25th Infantry Division, on December 17, 1967.

Anita Miller, Larry’s Fiancee was making her wedding gown and they were planning to be married on his R+R in Hawaii.

Larry was KIA on March 2, 1968, Province of Gia Dinh, South Vietnam, when his unit of 48 men, was ambushed on the Route 248 Bridge Road, Quoi Xuah Hamlet. Only 3 survived by laying under the bodies of other fallen brothers and playing dead.

Larry was awarded a Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service w/Bronze Star Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation Medal.

Dear PFC Larry Huston Walden, 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

AN UNKNOWN FRIEND

A Tribute to Larry Walden

I remember you not so much as face or a name,

but as a feeling, that part of your soul, you left in my heart.

This is where you are going, this place that only the brave have been,

a place where you know what it means to love your friends.

If I knew that you were not to return, I would have held you in my arms,

to save you from your fate, to protect you from harm.

But you would never have allowed someone else to take your destiny's call,

to honor, duty, country you always gave your all.

Leading men into darkness, down some darkening trail,

you knew that some would fall, and one you did tell.

You gave your life for that unknown soldier,

who would have stood there, where you fell.

Names are lost to history and faces to the grave,

feeling we take with us, beyond the faces and the names.

Thoughts tell us where we are going, feelings tell us where we have been,

love tells us where we are, this love for one another, this love for our friends.

You may have owed a debt that you were bound to pay,

the law that sees that all books are balanced, all compensation met.

That you gave your last devotion for freedom, country and cause,

and to that unknown soldier, known only unto God.

I know that you live now in that place known only to them,

that have no greater love than to lay down their life for their friends.

A place of joy and beauty, a place of peace… to know,

that place you have earned, is the love in God's own soul.

We served together in Vietnam,

Cpl. Billy M. Butenhoff

Charley 17 1st MarDiv

USMC (RVN) 1969-1970

1516 S W 86, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73159

[email protected]

8 Jun 2004
20 Dec 2011