THE WALL OF FACES

Charlie Company of the 5-12th Infantry, 199th Light Infantry Brigade, began humping toward Hill 428 in Cambodia on the morning of May 21, 1970. They had already been out in the thick, hostile jungle for well over a week. The grunts were tired, sore, hot, and homesick. The point was paralleling a high-speed trail that was going in the same direction. Word filtered back that they could not go forward another step. The jungle was too thick. The command came down to get on the trail. Charlie Company next walked into a near-perfect U-shaped ambush at the base of Hill 428. The warriors were outgunned and outnumbered from the very start. SGT Warren L. Scanlan Jr. and SP4 Donald G. Busse were killed in the first few seconds of the ambush. Sixteen other soldiers were seriously wounded within minutes. Calls for help were answered by the 199th Fireball Aviation which provided two harrowing resupplies over the canopy where Charlie Company was pinned down. Their UH-1 was riddled with over 50 bullet holes from NVA small arms fire. A third resupply was attempted from FSB Brown in an OH-6A “Loach.” As the small helicopter came to a hover over the canopy, hundreds of enemy rounds tore into the ship, stitching the helicopter from one side to the other. The Plexiglas front windscreen shattered with tremendous force and other parts of the body were ripped away from the fuselage. The grunts on the ground stared in awe as the helicopter dipped and the engine momentarily stalled, then restarted, gained a little bit of altitude and, like a smoking, wounded bird spiraling out of control, flew back towards FSB Brown. Within 500 meters of Brown, the tail boom suddenly came off the Loach causing it to nose-dive into the trees. There was a small explosion, followed by thick, black smoke curling upward through the jungle canopy. A sniper team from FSB Brown was the first to reach the crash site. They found no survivors. The lost crewmen included WO1 Patrick F. Crawley, WO1 Robert E. Gorske, and SGT Jon W. Rich. [Taken from issuu.com]

Dear SP4 Donald Gene Busse, 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, Sir

Curt Carter

You were and will always be my hero Don. I miss you terribly. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of you. You were such a good person and taken from us far too soon. I would love to corrispond with anyone who knew him. I love talking about him. My email address is [email protected]. Your loving sister, Anne

He gave his life for our country , our freedom . You have been gone longer than you got to spend time on this earth! Taken way to young. Will always be proud of you for your sacrifice. Love your sis Sue

you served with my brother in law . his name was warren lee scanlan. They were killed side by side in an ambush at hill 429. the story is in a book by robert gouge called above and beyond the call of duty. ames drummond