THE WALL OF FACES

Ben, you are not forgotten Marine! I appreciate you and your family.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

On the remembrance of your 71st birthday, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

Forever 18.

Semper Fi, Marine.

Benjamin.......Honoring you on your birthday.....Never forgotten.....God Bless

PFC Benjamin F. Almaguer served with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 37th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Despite an MOS of Motor Vehicle Operator, PFC Almaguer served as an assistant gunner and ammunition bearer on a machine gun team. On March 10, 1968, Almaguer was assigned to stay behind at the Marine compound his unit shared with ARVN’s (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) while his gun team went on a night ambush. Near midnight, the compound was mortared by a hostile force. The Marines and the ARVN’s were receiving fire from two different locations and taking significant casualties. The ambush team was radioed and ordered to return to help with the wounded. When the ambush team returned, they found chaos and destruction at the compound. At least ten Marines suffered fragmentation wounds in the attack including Almaguer. They helped move the wounded to an extraction point where a medivac helicopter came to evacuate them. Later, they returned to the large GP tent they bunked in. On the floor was a body covered by a poncho. It was Almaguer. The corpsman came up to the machine gun team leader and explained with tears in his eyes that Almaguer had suffered a laceration to an external jugular vein from a mortar fragment and, despite his best efforts, couldn’t stem the bleeding. As the morning light arrived, the Marines could see that their tent had been shredded by shrapnel and understood why every Marine in the compound had been wounded by the previous night’s attack. Improbably, when Almaguer’s Marine casualty report was written, it stated he died from a "gunshot wound to the body from an accidental discharge of an M16 rifle by another person while on patrol." How they mistakenly created this account mystifies those who served with him. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Leroy Driffill (January 2019)]