THE WALL OF FACES

Thanks for posting the final mission for Ernest Weathersbee. He was my cousin and we did not know exactly how he passed. He had two cousins wounded the same year. It was a sad time for our families.

During the first quarter of 1968, the 9th Infantry Division’s tactical area of responsibility included twelve provinces within the southern portion of South Vietnam. The division conducted strike operations to locate and destroy Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) main and local forces and their installations and infrastructures. In response to the VC/NVA Tet Offensive, division resources were deployed against the increased enemy activity in Gia Dinh Province. During February 13th-15th, infantrymen from the 9th Division’s 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry were in sustained battle around Dong Phu, six miles southeast of Saigon. On the 13th, Company B, 4/39th, was airmobiled into the area on a reconnaissance-in-force mission when it came under a mortar and small arms attack. For most of the day, the infantrymen were pinned down in waist-deep waters while artillery and air strikes pounded enemy locations. The next day, Companies B and C were flown back into the battle zone and encountered stiff resistance. Sweeping toward the enemy positions, they discovered a battalion-sized bunker system. They blasted the bunkers with M79’s, fragmentation grenades, and light anti-tank weapons with little result. Later airstrikes were more successful when direct hits destroyed the enemy fortifications. The Americans spent the night in the rice paddies which had risen to about chest high due to incoming tides and offered no overhead protection. Throughout the night they could hear the enemy dragging their dead away and fired on them when they could pinpoint their location. While Companies B and C were battling the bunker complex, Company A swept the area and found enemy weapons and ammunition. They also uncovered ten enemy graves, each containing from one to six bodies. In the tree days of fighting, units of 4/39th accounted for more than eighty-three dead VC and NVA and destroyed over 120 bunkers. A variety of weapons and documents were confiscated. U.S. losses were five men killed and fourteen wounded. The lost personnel included: (from B-4/39th) PFC Jerry W. Jenkins; (from C-4/39th) PFC George H. Dize (posthumously promoted to Corporal), SP4 Dohn W. Johnson, and PFC Ernest M. Weathersbee; and (from C Battery, 1st Bn, 11th Arty) forward observer 1LT Thomas Y. Osborne. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “No time for Valentines: 4th-39th slays 83 in 3 days.” The Old Reliable (9th Inf Div publication), February 28, 1968]

Dear PFC Ernest Weathersbee, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Thanksgiving is soon. Times flies. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

I met Ernie through a friend of his that I was in the same barracks with in Advance Infantry Training at Ft. Polk, Louisiana before going to Vietnam. They were friends in Sacramento. I found out after his death that he was in the same outfit I was in... the 9th Infantry.

Dear PFC Ernest Murral Weathersbee, 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