THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. As long as you are remembered you will remain in our hearts forever.....

Never forgotten.

HOOAH

Virgil’s mother was engaged to marry my uncle in the 1960’s. They were in a car crash that killed Virgil’s mother Mary. My mother was recently going through some old pictures and papers . She found pictures of Virgil, his brother Ronnie and his mother. Included in the pictures was a copy of Virgil and Ronnie’s birth certificates. My mom had always wondered what happened to the boys. Virgil had proposed to my mom once but she didn’t want to move to Tennessee. So I researched his name and birthdate to find this website. How ironic Virgil passed on the exact day my mother married my father, August 9, 1969. My this brave soldier Rest In Peace.

On the remembrance of your 71st birthday, and as 2021 nears, your sacrifice is not forgotten.

HOOAH

On August 9, 1969, a U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A (tail number 67-16269), call sign Apache 12, from A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, was conducting an armed visual reconnaissance and air strike bomb damage assessment mission in Tay Ninh Province between LZ Beverly and the Cambodian border. Accompanying Apache 12 was an AH-1G Cobra gunship (call sign Apache 27). During the mission, Apache 12 radioed Apache 27 that he wanted to head back to the west for a few minutes to an area they had just overflown because they observed something "not quite right.” Apache 12 was flying 50-90 feet above tall trees and underbrush partially denuded by the defoliant Agent Orange when the entire tree line exploded in a massive enfilade of enemy automatic weapons fire. An estimated two hundred North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers fired on command as muzzle flashes were strung out along approximately 400-500 yards of tree line. Apache 12 was heard to transmit they were taking fire before exploding and crashing into the trees among the westernmost elements of the enemy unit. Apache 27 immediately dove and engaged the NVA with the gunship’s 2.75-inch flechette and white phosphorous rockets and turreted 7.62mm minigun. The Cobra decelerated as it overflew the crash site, observing the OH-6A on fire with no survivors visible. The lost crew included pilot WO Stephen A. Young, observer SP5 James C. Dine, and gunner SP4 Michael R. Seibert. A twenty-man Blues aero-rifle rapid reaction team on alert at Tay Ninh Base Camp was carried in five ships and put down within a mile of the crash site. About halfway to the downed OH-6A, they were ambushed by the NVA. Blues team member PFC Virgil L. Castle went down with a gunshot wound to the center of his chest; he died within a minute. With his last breathes, Castle called for help, and another Blues team member made it to him but was shot twice in the stomach and once in the leg. The reaction force withdrew with their casualties and was replaced by a battalion-sized force which secured the crash site and recovered the lost flight crew. Castle was posthumously promoted to Corporal. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, vhpa.org, bullwhipsquadron.us, and information provided by Karl Wright (October 2020)]