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Casualty Info
Home Town Rio Piedras, PR
Last Address Rio Piedras, PR
Casualty Date Feb 04, 1966
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Vietnam, South (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Puerto Rico National Cemetery (VA) - Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section F, Site 223
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Casualty Occurrence: This Soldier was killed by fragmentation wounds during a NIGHT PATROL AMBUSH NEAR LAI KHE 19680204 in Binh Duong Province.
POSTED ON 9.19.2019. POSTED BY: WKILLIAN@SMJUHSD.ORG. FINAL MISSION OF PFC ANTONIO BARBOSA-VILLAFANE. Lai Khe Base Camp was a Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and U.S. Army base, located along Highway 13 (“Thunder Road”) to the northwest of Saigon. It was the Headquarters for the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division. Late in the afternoon of February 4, 1966, near sunset, a platoon-sized patrol consisting of 32 men departed the camp on foot to conduct a night ambush mission in the area to west of the base. Most of the personnel were from 3rd Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division. After clearing the perimeter, the point element crossed the Saigon River. As the command group, including some officers and the Forward Observer and radiomen, were preparing to cross, two U.S.-made M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mines were detonated in a sandbar. The blasts killed ten Americans and wounded another nine. The explosions could be heard within the base, and when Battalion couldn’t establish radio contact with the patrol, a reactionary force raced over to their location. Helicopters were launched, and medivacs soon landed to remove the dead and wounded. It would take over four hours to completely police-up the ambush site as members of A Company worked in the dark to remove weapons and equipment. The lost personnel included PFC Antonio Barbosa-Villafane, PFC William A. Bason II, PFC Samuel L. Dellos, SGT Arnold E. Ison, SP4 Stephen E. Laier, SSG Paul R. Setzer, SSG Frank R. Stamper, SSG Charles E. Strader, SP4 John H. Thompson, and SP4 Stanley J. Thompson. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Jose Rafael Sierra September 2019)].
Comments/Citation:
POSTED ON 8.5.2021. POSTED BY: RAFAEL SIERRA. ALPHA CO. 1ST BTN 16TH INF. I was with you then, as I am now. Rest In Peace Brother. SP4 Rafael Sierra FDC Mortar Platoon, Lai Khe, Vietnam 1966.
Manuel Pino B/2/8th Cav 68-69, Fellow Vietnam Army Vet. A/1/16th Inf Rgt, 1st Inf Div. MY COUNTRY'S FLAG CRIED the flag bowed it's bars and wept starry tears as it hung at half-mast for a soldier's years. another youth it had called and another youth had died. I stood and i watched as my country's flag cried. It clothed the drab coffin in its red, white, and blue, silently protecting the contents for the comfort of a few. It brought strength to some, to others, bitter pride. But, as mourners filed by, my country's flag cried as it rode to the field where the soldier was laid. The flag recalled the pledge that he used to stand and say to war he went and to keep that pledge he tried. As the guns fired their last salute, my country's flag cried. As taps rang out, it was folded with care for the soldier's soul, a chaplin whispered a prayer. He asked god for peace in this world to abide, and in a grieving mother's arms my country's flag cried! Aug 10, 2007.
Description This campaign was from 25 December 1965 to 30 June 1966. United States operations after 1 July 1966 were a continuation of the earlier counteroffensive campaign. Recognizing the interdependence of political, economic, sociological, and military factors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared that American military objectives should be to cause North Vietnam to cease its control and support of the insurgency in South Vietnam and Laos, to assist South Vietnam in defeating Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam, and to assist South Vietnam in pacification extending governmental control over its territory.
North Vietnam continued to build its own forces inside South Vietnam. At first this was done by continued infiltration by sea and along the Ho Chi Minh trail and then, in early 1966, through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). U.S. air elements received permission to conduct reconnaissance bombing raids, and tactical air strikes into North Vietnam just north of the DMZ, but ground forces were denied authority to conduct reconnaissance patrols in the northern portion of the DMZ and inside North Vietnam. Confined to South Vietnamese territory U.S. ground forces fought a war of attrition against the enemy, relying for a time on body counts as one standard indicator for measuring successful progress for winning the war.
During 1966 there were eighteen major operations, the most successful of these being Operation WHITE WING (MASHER). During this operation, the 1st Cavalry Division, Korean units, and ARVN forces cleared the northern half of Binh Dinh Province on the central coast. In the process they decimated a division, later designated the North Vietnamese 3d Division. The U.S. 3d Marine Division was moved into the area of the two northern provinces and in concert with South Vietnamese Army and other Marine Corps units, conducted Operation HASTINGS against enemy infiltrators across the DMZ.
The largest sweep of 1966 took place northwest of Saigon in Operation ATTLEBORO, involving 22,000 American and South Vietnamese troops pitted against the VC 9th Division and a NVA regiment. The Allies defeated the enemy and, in what became a frequent occurrence, forced him back to his havens in Cambodia or Laos.
By 31 December 1966, U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam numbered 385,300. Enemy forces also increased substantially, so that for the same period, total enemy strength was in excess of 282,000 in addition to an estimated 80,000 political cadres. By 30 June 1967, total U.S. forces in SVN had risen to 448,800, but enemy strength had increased as well.
On 8 January U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched separate drives against two major VC strongholds in South Vietnam-in the so-called "Iron Triangle" about 25 miles northwest of Saigon. For years this area had been under development as a VC logistics base and headquarters to control enemy activity in and around Saigon. The Allies captured huge caches of rice and other foodstuffs, destroyed a mammoth system of tunnels, and seized documents of considerable intelligence value.
In February, the same U.S. forces that had cleared the "Iron Triangle", were committed with other units in the largest allied operation of the war to date, JUNCTION CITY. Over 22 U.S. and four ARVN battalions engaged the enemy, killing 2,728. After clearing this area, the Allies constructed three airfields; erected a bridge and fortified two camps in which CIDG garrisons remained as the other allied forces withdrew.
