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Contact Info
Home Town Vieques Island
Last Address Pembroke Pines, Florida
Date of Passing Mar 27, 2007
Location of Interment Cementerio Municipal - De Vieques, Puerto Rico
Wall/Plot Coordinates Vieques Cenetery
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Other Comments:
The Brave Are Many
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A Brave Young Soldier crawls through a muddy trench along a line between good and evil. The air he breathes burns his lungs. His eyes strain to see her face. And as the poisonous gas its grisly task done, rises toward the sky, his soul follows close behind.
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A Brave Young Soldier marches through the Jungles of the Philippine Islands. Head held high, back straight, eyes forward, courage strong and faith unbroken. A death march to Bataan, endured.
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A Brave Young Soldier survives the cruel and merciless hell War of Vietnam. Now he fights another war from a bed in a VA Hospital. A vicious microscopic demon devouring his body cell by cell. A lifetime of dreams not yet realized, as he kisses his bride of some thirty years one last time.
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A Brave Young Soldier lies face down in the sand of a far away land. He is mortally wounded, his crimson blood soaked up by the desert. His tears fall like shining bits of silver, falling not for the pain nor the fear of death. As he cries he sees generations before him of Brave Young Soldiers reaching out their hands to welcome him home. Fighting to resist the flight to heaven he cries, â??Am I the last?â?? As he passes from this life, he fears he's the last. Â
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â??Form up ladsâ?? the Sergeant barks as the Brave Young Soldier takes his place among Godâ??s Heavenly Honor Guard.
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A Brave Young bride holds the folded flag, her heart broken and bleeding. Blowing a kiss to her Brave Young Soldier one last time, she feels a kick from within her womb. â??You will not be the last, my Brave Young Soldier.â?? She whispers softly.Â
John Vincent Prater
Vietnam War/Tet Counteroffensive Campaign (1968)
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
April / 1968
Description This campaign was from 30 January to 1 April 1968. On 29 January 1968 the Allies began the Tet-lunar new year expecting the usual 36-hour peaceful holiday truce. Because of the threat of a large-scale attack and communist buildup around Khe Sanh, the cease fire order was issued in all areas over which the Allies were responsible with the exception of the I CTZ, south of the Demilitarized Zone.
Determined enemy assaults began in the northern and Central provinces before daylight on 30 January and in Saigon and the Mekong Delta regions that night. Some 84,000 VC and North Vietnamese attacked or fired upon 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals and 50 hamlets. In addition, the enemy raided a number of military installations including almost every airfield. The actual fighting lasted three days; however Saigon and Hue were under more intense and sustained attack.
The attack in Saigon began with a sapper assault against the U.S. Embassy. Other assaults were directed against the Presidential Palace, the compound of the Vietnamese Joint General Staff, and nearby Ton San Nhut air base.
At Hue, eight enemy battalions infiltrated the city and fought the three U.S. Marine Corps, three U.S. Army and eleven South Vietnamese battalions defending it. The fight to expel the enemy lasted a month. American and South Vietnamese units lost over 500 killed, while VC and North Vietnamese battle deaths may have been somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000.
Heavy fighting also occurred in two remote regions: around the Special Forces camp at Dak To in the central highlands and around the U.S. Marines Corps base at Khe Sanh. In both areas, the allies defeated attempts to dislodge them. Finally, with the arrival of more U.S. Army troops under the new XXIV Corps headquarters to reinforce the marines in the northern province, Khe Sanh was abandoned.
Tet proved a major military defeat for the communists. It had failed to spawn either an uprising or appreciable support among the South Vietnamese. On the other hand, the U.S. public became discouraged and support for the war was seriously eroded. U.S. strength in South Vietnam totaled more than 500,000 by early 1968. In addition, there were 61,000 other allied troops and 600,000 South Vietnamese.
The Tet Offensive also dealt a visibly severe setback to the pacification program, as a result of the intense fighting needed to root out VC elements that clung to fortified positions inside the towns. For example, in the densely populated delta there had been approximately 14,000 refugees in January; after Tet some 170,000 were homeless. The requirement to assist these persons seriously inhibited national recovery efforts.