THE WALL OF FACES

Remember to 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...

Dear Lt Lester Watson, Thank you for your service as a Basic Infantry Officer. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Yesterday was Veterans’ Day. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance, and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

During the Vietnam War, the III Marine Expeditionary Force relied heavily on trucks to move cargo and personnel throughout 1968. Major combat bases and logistic support units received most of their supplies by armed “Rough Rider” truck convoys. At 1:45 PM on July 20, 1968, a Rough Rider convoy from the 11th Motor Transportation Battalion was returning to Da Nang from Phu Bai on Highway QL-1 when the M54A2 5-ton cargo truck being used to carry the center security squad was hit by Claymore-type mines. The blasts occurred a half-mile northwest of the Hai Van Pass and caused the truck to leave the highway and catch fire. The convoy then came under small arms and automatic weapons fire. Three Marines were killed in the incident, and another five were wounded. The lost Marines included LCPL Richard G. Pixley and 2LT Lester A. Watson from D Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Both received fragmentation wounds from the mines. Also killed was PFC Dennis H. Wirt, an 11th MT Battalion mechanic, who suffered third-degree burns when the truck burned. Medivac aircraft arrived and removed all the casualties. The M54 truck was completely destroyed. Ten minutes after the attack began, a squad from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines on patrol nearby responded to the convoy’s call for help. The squad fired thirty rounds of 106mm and thirty-one rounds of 81mm mortar fire on the suspected enemy positions. They swept the area and found three dead Viet Cong dressed in green utilities. Later in the day, around 7:30 PM, while continuing their sweep of the enemy positions, the squad observed two enemy and maneuvered towards them. They came under fire from an unknown number of enemy but continued to attack with automatic weapons and small arms fire. A search of the area produced three additional enemy bodies and the capture of one AK-47, six AK-47 magazines, one cartridge belt, and two canteens. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, Command Chronology (11th Motor Transportation Battalion) and Command Chronology (2d Bn 5th Marines) at ttu.edu]

It has been forty seven years since you made the ultimate sacrifice for county . I was on the truck that day with you . I was not in company but was a gunner in motor BN . I'm sorry to this day not to help you more . My physical scars have healed but still struggle with that day .
CPL Mike Zamiatala
11Th Motor BN.
Vietnam Dec 1967 - Jan 1969