THE WALL OF FACES

Carroll is buried at Walnut Grove Cemetery, Sevier, TN.

Just want you to know that you will always be in my heart and mind.Had the honor of being there with you.

"An God said who shall we send.I answered I am here,send me."

Isaiah 6:8

below is a copy of a letter my father wrote Jay Shaulis about his friend /ammo bearer Carroll Abbott.SOUTH VIETNAM OCTOBER 25, 1966 COMPANY B OF THE 2ND BATTALION 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION RECEIVED RADIO REPORT THAT COMPANY C OF THE 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION WAS UNDER ATTACK. COMPANY B RECEIVED ORDERS TO GO TO THEIR AID, BECAUSE OF OTHER BATTLES, THERE WAS NO ARTILLERY OR AIR SUPPORT AVAILABLE (AT THE TIME) AND WE WERE THE CLOSEST COMPANY TO THEIR POSITION.WE WALKED ALL NIGHT AND ALL OF THE NEXT DAY TO GET TO THEIR POSITION. AT DUSK, WE WERE ABOUT A QUARTER OF A MILE FROM THEIR POSITION WHEN WE RECEIVED A RADIO MESSAGE THAT THEY WERE OVERRUN (COMPLETELY WIPED OUT) AND AN ESTIMATE OF 3,000 NORTH VIETNAMESE REGULARS WERE HEADED OUR WAY. (THEY WERE SEEN BY A SMALL SPOTTER PLANE AND BY THE DISTANCE THEY WERE STRUNG OUT THROUGH THE JUNGLE, EVERY 4TH MAN HAD A FLASHLIGHT, THE ESTIMATE WAS 3,000)SO WE DUG IN FOR THE NIGHT ON A HILL #389. THE GROUND WAS HARD AND ROCKY, MY AMMO BEARER AND ME ONLY HAD TIME TO DIG OUR FOXHOLE ABOUT A FOOT DEEP, TO LIE IN A PRONE POSITION BEFORE NIGHT FELL. AT 11:00 P.M. ON THE NIGHT OF OCTOBER 26, A NORTH VIETNAMESE SOLDIER CALLED OUT FROM THE JUNGLE, ?HEY G.I., WHAT TIME IS IT?? SOMEONE ANSWERED HIM FROM OUR PERIMETER AND SAID 11:00 P.M. AND ALL HELL LET LOOSE. WE FOUGHT HARD ALL NIGHT LONG. AT DAYBREAK THE FIGHTING SLACKED OFF, ?I GUESS SO THEY COULD REGROUP AND TAKE CARE OF THEIR WOUNDED OR DEAD.?WE COULD STILL SEE THEM MOVING THROUGH THE JUNGLE, SO WE TOOK TURNS ON THE MACHINE GUN AND DIGGING OUR FOXHOLE DEEPER. BY DUSK OUR FOXHOLE NOW A BUNKER WAS FIVE FOOT DEEP. AT DARK, OCTOBER THE 27TH, THEY HIT US AGAIN. WAVE AFTER WAVE THEY KEPT COMING. THE BARREL OF MY GUN WAS SO HOT, IT GLOWED WHITE. WE CARRIED AN EXTRA BARREL, BUT DIDN?T HAVE TIME TO CHANGE IT. THERE WERE BODIES AS CLOSE AS FIVE FEET FROM OUR BUNKER. BEFORE DAWN, THE FIGHTING STOPPED. THE NIGHT WAS COMPLETELY BLACK AND DEATHLY QUIET. AT DAYBREAK, NOT A SINGLE ENEMY BODY WAS FOUND. SOMEHOW, UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS, AND WITHOUT A SOUND, THEY KREPT UP AND REMOVED THEIR DEAD. (A PROMISE TO BURY THOSE KILLED IN ACTION OR TO DECEIVE US, I DON?T KNOW, BUT THEY WERE ALL GONE.)THE MORNING OF OCTOBER 28TH, THEY TRIED TO RESUPPLY US WITH FOOD AND AMMUNITION. THE CHOPPERS RECEIVED HEAVY ENEMY FIRE, SO THEY DUMPED THEIR LOADS AND LEFT. WE GOT THE AMMUNITION, BUT THE FOOD AND WATER FELL OUTSIDE OUR PERIMETER. (BY THIS TIME, WE HAD GONE WITHOUT FOOD, WATER OR SLEEP FOR OVER 72 HOURS.) WE SPENT THAT DAY FORTIFYING OUR BUNKERS WITH LOGS AND RELOADING MAGAZINES. WE RECEIVED A RADIO REPORT OF POSSIBLE AIR SUPPORT. WE PUT FLARES IN THE TREES SURROUNDING OUR PERIMETER WITH A WIRE LEADING BACK TO OUR BUNKERS TO SET THEM OFF WHEN AIR SUPPORT ARRIVED. OUR AIR SUPPORT WAS A B-52 BOMBER ARMED WITH A 20 MILLIMETER GATTLING GUN, NICKNAMED, ?PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON? CAPABLE OF HITTING ITS TARGET WITHIN 3 FEET FROM 10,000 FEET (ALMOST 2 MILES HIGH).AS USUAL, AS NIGHT FELL WE WERE HIT AGAIN. OUR AIR SUPPORT ARRIVED AND AS WE TRIED TO SET OFF THE FLARES TO NOTIFY THEM OF OUR POSITION, EVERY SINGLE WIRE WAS CUT. AS A LAST RESORT, WE SET OFF STROBE LIGHTS USED ONLY TO CALL IN FIRE ON YOUR OWN POSITION WHEN YOU ARE OVERRUN.PUFF MADE ONE PASS, CIRCLED AND CAME BACK WITH ANOTHER PASS. THE 20-MILLIMETER SHELLS EXPLODED WITHIN INCHES OF OUR BUNKER. THEN PHANTOM JETS DROPPED NAPAUM (JELLIED GAS) AND SET THE JUNGLE ON FIRE. THE RIFLEMAN TO THE RIGHT OF US WAS KILLED SO MY AMMO BEARER MOVED TO HIS BUNKER IN AN EFFORT TO FILL THE GAP IN OUR PERIMETER, NOT KNOWING AT THE TIME OUR COMPANY OF 120 MEN STRONG WAS DOWN TO ONLY 20. ON OCTOBER 29TH, AT DAYBREAK, CONFUSED, EXHAUSTED, BUT AMAZED OF THE ALLSOMENESS OF THE FIRE POWER WE RECEIVED FROM THE AIR SUPPORT. THE JUNGLE STILL BURNING, WE CRAWLED OUT OF OUR BUNKERS, SURELY THIS MUST BE THE END; WE SURVIVED. WE SAT AT THE EDGE OF OUR BUNKERS WHEN SUDDENLY, AFTER ALL WE HAD BEEN THROUGH, MY AMMO BEARER, SITTING 10 FEET TO THE RIGHT OF ME, WAS HIT IN THE CHEST BY A ROCKET (FIRED FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE JUNGLE). THE ROUND FAILED TO GO OFF, BUT PASSED CLEAN THROUGH HIM. HE SAT THERE, WHAT SEEMED TO BE AN ETERNITY, BUT I KNOW IT WAS ONLY A FEW SECONDS. NO LAST BURST OF GUNFIRE IN RETALIATION, NO WORDS OF ANGER AND NO CALL FOR THE MEDIC. HE CALMLY LOOKED UP TO HEAVEN AND SAID ?GOD FORGIVE ME.? THE BATTLE FOR HIM WAS OVER.IF YOU HAVE GOD IN YOUR HEART, HE WILL BE WITH YOU EVEN UNTIL DEATH. KNOWING THEN WITH COMLETE PEACE, YOU WILL BE WITH HIM. AFTER THAT DAY, EVERYTIME WE GOT INTO TROUBLE, I WOULD RECITE PART OF THE 23 PSALM, ?YEA THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FOR THOUGH ART WITH ME.I WANTED TO RECEIVE THE COMPLETE PEACE IN MY HEART THAT I KNOW MY AMMO BEARER HAD. 3,000 AGAINST 120 +1-THE LORD.

Goodbye, America's heroes, we have shamefully failed to stand by you, for all the wrong reasons which had tempted us aside! Now, we must pay the price for letting those who survived down, as well knowing some who didn't have to die, have died! We must honor them every day when we see their names upon the Wall! And from every corner of the land, they answered to the call! Every SOLDIER, sailor, airman, and Marine and Coast Guardsman, too...they all gave their lives so we could live beneath the old Red, White, and Blue. For those who've gone before, we say, "WELL DONE! Be thou at peace!" We salute this fine SP4 from Sevierville, Tennessee, whose devotion to DUTY...whose devotion to HONOR...and ABOVE ALL!...whose devotion to GOD and our COUNTRY!...the land that he loved, where Davy Crockett once roamed...the LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE!...will NEVER...I say again...will NEVER be extinguished from our minds! SP4 Abbott, Davy Crockett would have been proud of you.