Elias, Juan Angel, SGT

Date of Birth October 12, 1945
Caucasian / American Indian
Roman Catholic
Married
 
Wife: Erminia Elias
Daughter: Anni Whiteraven Elias

Father:  Louie Elias
Mother: Victoria Love

Vietnam Tour of Duty Started August 5, 1967

Killed in Combat Action From Serious Multiple Fragmentation Wounds Sustained From a Hostile Grenade in a Booby-trap During Combat Operation in The Quang Tri Province, U.S. Military Region 1, Republic of South Vietnam.
 
SGT Elias was evacuated and admitted to a U.S. Navy Hospital Ship with very serious injuries where he later died.  His date of death, May 29, 1968, may not be the same date as when he was wounded.  The date of his injuries is not confirmed but believed to be May 21, 1968.

Age at Death 22
 
On May 17, 1968, Operation Jeb Stuart III commenced in Quang Tri and Thura Thien Provinces from Hue City up to the DMZ. By this date the 1st Cavalry Division had completed its mission in A Shau Valley, disrupting the flow of troops and supplies from North Vietnam through Laos, and resumed security operations in the eastern regions of these two provinces. Operation Jeb Stuart III continued until November 3, 1968, when the division moved south near Cambodia in Operation Liberty Canyon.
 
SGT Elias died during Operation Jeb Stuart III.
 

 
A Cool November Morning:
On a cool November morning, I stood before the Wall, then to a stage to speak from my heart of you. My hands shook, but not my voice, for my voice is yours. As I scanned the crowd, your eyes I found, in every man who stood to listen. Yes Father they even cheered, but I could not find the tears that waited and watched as well. Angel Until this moment I never understood... but now I do. You are always with me, and I am never alone, and in the cold dark of that November night, the tears that waited came, and with them the soul of every name upon that Wall. Father your name is seared into my heart and soul, and I Thank you for going back a third time, so that another daughter, could stand at this Wall, and know too the sacrifice this child had made. You are not held by this Wall nor the wind nor rain, just as you lived know that I carry you with me, for I am you, on a cool November morning.
You held me on a cool November morning as I came to this world, as I hold you each and every day. I remember all too well the last time you held me another November day; looking into your eyes I held the world as I do now. Yes I do remember... Father a new day has come, and yet you are never gone simply a breath away

Your Loving Daughter
Anni Whiteraven
March 22, 2009
 
 
Information From The Internet Regarding The Movie 'Platoon":

Juan Angel Elias was a "Full Blooded White Mountain Apache".  He was not Hispanic as some thought.

Elias's daughter writes; "It is true that my father did in fact befriend Oliver Stone (about 1968); his choice of Willem Dafoe was inspired!  He took on this role with everything that he had and I am proud and honored to say that he possesses one of the two remaining Dog Tags my father wore.  It was my pleasure to see him wear it.  I am sure that my father would have wanted it that way......" [Internet information].