Jack Peter De Lange Specialist Five A CO, 1ST BN, 52ND INF RGT, 198 INF BDE Army of the United States 07 March 1948 - 05 March 1969 Elkhorn, WI Panel 30W Line 042

 

05 Jan 1999 Jack was a friend of mine and was killed in action in Viet Nam in 1969. The years have gone by so quickly that I have lost all contact with his family and friends. I met this young man in AIT at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. I would like to make contact with other people who knew him.

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall Extracted from http://www.williamcox.org SP5 Jack Peter De Lange, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, was twenty years old when he was killed in action in an ambush on the morning of 5 Mar 69, the day before I was wounded. His 21st birthday would have been on 7 Mar, just two days after he was killed. We didn't know that. Jack didn't talk much about himself. His job as our platoon medic kept him busy, and he took it very seriously. Besides being my platoon medic, he was A Company's senior aid-man. I think about Jack nearly every day. This is disturbing, but I need to get this out. On the morning Jack was killed, my platoon was operating separately from the company -- as we often did. And as on the day I was wounded, our mission was to locate, establish, and defend an extraction point for the company. When we were hit, our immediate responsive fire failed to suppress the intense enemy automatic weapons fire, and this caused a dangerous immobility in my platoon -- instead of rapid responsive fire-and-maneuver, or withdrawal (textbook ambush responses), we took cover and I attempted to organize a hasty defense. Within seconds two men were wounded. Amid the intense close-quarters gunfire, Jack moved from man to man, stopping the bleeding and dressing wounds. We covered him. After Jack dressed the head wound of a rifleman (Leos) who was fighting beside me, another man took a round to our left front. Jack moved immediately to his aid and threw himself across the wounded man to protect him from increasing fire, and in that instant a round struck him center forehead, killing him instantly. Soon after Jack was killed, Brian Wolfe appeared in the thick of the fight to help my wounded men. I was able to contact a nephew of Jack's last year and inquired if the family received the Silver Star I recommended for him, but his nephew wrote back that he didn't know. I hope Jack's family knows about his gallantry. He gave his life for us -- he didn't lose it. William A. Cox, Captain, Army of the United States

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