THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. While all deaths in Vietnam are tragic that you died just five days after your 21st birthday is especially so. May you rest in eternal peace.

Dear PFC Lee Zoeller, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is spring. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance, and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

My sister was is girlfriend be he was drafted. They met at the Baskin and Robins Ice Cream store on Del Amo Blvd. in Lakewood. They were together up until he went to Nam. Very cool guy.

Lee and I were drafted into the United States Army from the Los Angeles Induction Center in May of 1967. We immediately became friends and I grew close to Lee in the 10 short weeks we spent in basic training at Fort Ord, California.
After basic training, most of the guys in basic training, including Lee, went to Fort Polk, Louisiana. Sometime, later that year, I heard Lee had received orders to go to Vietnam in November, 1967.
Later that year, when I was shipping out to Vietnam, I heard that Lee had been killed shortly after arriving "in country." I tried reaching out to his family but never did get in touch with them.
While I Washington D.C., I looked up Lee on the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
To this day, I still remember Lee .... we were just California kids !!

Thank you PFC Zoeller for your courage in dangerous times, in a far and dangerous place.