THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for being an Indirect Fire Infantryman. You are appreciated.

Dear Ssgt Abraham Colon-Perez,
Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Today starts 2018, Happy New Year, and it is the 8th Day of Christmas. It is so important for us all to acknowledge the sacrifices of those like you who answered our nation's call. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

Dear SSGT Abraham Linco Colon-Perez, 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, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter

To my Uncle, I never knew you but I've heard so many stories from my mom - your sister Aida Colon. I wish i had the chance to meet you, I completed four years in the US Marines because i wanted to be a hero just like you. I bear my middle name with pride. I love u uncle and i hope we get to meet in heaven. LOVE Always, your nephew
LUIS ABRAHAM RIOS

Abraham and I grew up in The Bronx. I've known him since he was 8. We grew up in the projects. He and I were a team - always playing stickball - fast pitch if you know what I mean. He was a NY Yankee fan, I loved the Brooklyn Dodgers (it was 1954 and the Dodgers left Brooklyn in '57). I still remember the day I yelled out the window when Brooklyn won in '55, "Hey Abe.....". He just waved me off. After all the Yankees were the dominant baseball team of the 50's and he knew they would win again - and they did. Abe was a super sportsman, good at touch football too but we loved baseball, especially fast pitch stickball. Mickey Mantle was his idol.

We went through public schools and graduated at the same time. After high school, we worked together up in Yonkers. He was saving to visit his sick mom in PR after Christmas. I was saving to visit a friend of ours who just moved to FL with his family. Now here's where it gets really good. We flew out of NYC in January of 1964 - Trans Caribbean to PR, Eastern Airlines to FL. I hung out and even worked in FL until I landed a job in Miami to sell magazines door-to-door - in PR! The magazine company flew me to PR, set me up with the others, and we sold magazines in Rio Piedras. I lasted 2 days and quit. I knew Abe was on the other side of the island in the small town of Moca so I hopped in a Publico (cab with many people) and for $2.50 went 60 miles, got to the small town after dark, walked into the police station, and asked for Abraham Colon-Perez (I don't speak Spanish). The cop put me in a Jeep and drove me out on a dirt road in the middle of sugar cane fields and we spotted Abe playing with his friends. I walked out of the Jeep's headlights. Abe couldn't believe his eyes because he never knew I was even in PR. He told me it felt like a dream and I was like appearing. We stayed overnight in his small home. His aunt was so nice to me. I tasted raw sugar cane for the first time. We went to San Juan the next day so I could get some money from home. Unfortunately it was a Saturday and wire transfers would arrive on Monday. We ate rice and beans at a small restaurant in Old San Juan and slept on the grass in the warm San Juan night. The next day we broke down and got a $5 room at the YMCA for one night. I was broke after coming back to San Juan but I did manage to get $20 off the magazine people. After my money arrived via wire transfer from NYC on Monday, I flew back to Miami. He went home.

We both came back to NYC in April of 1964, got a new job together and worked for a year until February 1965 when we both quit and took a trip back to PR. We worked and saved just for that adventure. This time we rented a brand new 1965 Ford Fairlane for 2 weeks and drove everywhere. One time we got lost driving the roads through the rain forest; the roads were winding; it was late at night when the road finally took us to civilization, a small store with a gas pump. Good thing. We were almost out of gasoline. We were always looking for girls - went to Luquillo Beach up from San Juan. We even took the passenger ferry from Fajardo to St.Thomas - We both got real sea sick, got a hotel room, and the next day toured the capital, Charlotte Amalie. We flew back to San Juan on a twin engine small plane. What a memorable 3-4 weeks. I think I flew back to NYC ahead of him. We hung around the block some more that fateful Summer of '65 and talked about what we were going to do in life. The war was escalating and he was pretty firm about joining the US Army to get some focus on what he wanted to do. I wasn't interested, yet. Another friend of ours, Mike Vitacco, joined up in March 1965. Abe joined soon after, RA all the way, 4 years with a promise of schooling and Germany, not Nam. I got a job for a UPS type outfit in Queens. I remember when Abe came home from Basic that late summer. He put on his fatigues, complete with spit-shine boots, military creases and all. Me and our mutual friends were cracking up. Abe was cool. He had money and he felt important - he was impressive. He took Basic at Fort Dix, NJ in the hot summer and told me never to join in the summer. He may have taken a short trip back to PR over that 2 week leave or it might have been later after Advanced Infantry Training. I joined the US Army in late '65 and the next time our paths crossed was - in Germany. We were both Light Weapons Infantry but stationed about 200 miles from each other, him in Mannheim, me near Nurnberg (I was lucky so far since the US needed troops there). I too went into the US Army but for 3 years. He just made E5 in Germany, I was an E4. It was late winter, 1967. I'd been in Germany 9 months, he was there over a year. I took a train to Frankfurt, then Mannheim and met him on base. We went into town, enjoyed 2 days looking for freuleins, drinking the good beer. I then went back to my base since I only had a 3-day pass. That was the last time I saw him. He was levied to Nam soon after. He made E6 there. We mailed letters to each other once in awhile until that day when I received my letter back from him, unopened, and it was marked "DECEASED". That day in 1968 I learned my best friend was dead.

I honorably discharged from The US Army in August of 1968, used the GI Bill, graduated college, married, raised our son, and put him through college. But I sometimes wonder what Abraham's life would have been had he not died so young.
Tom Grandel
December, 2001
POST BY SPC. JAMES MEDINA FOR A CHILDHOOD FRIEND OF SSGT. COLON-PEREZ. WITH MR. TOM GRANDEL PERMISSION.