23 May 2005 SSgt Joe Gillespie is remembered by the City of Midland, Texas and by the Permian Basin Vietnam Veterans' Memorial located at the Midland International Airport, Midland, Texas. He was a 14 year veteran of the Marine Corp. May his sacrifice never be forgotten. From a PBVVM representative, Billy M. Brown bmbrown@grandecom.net

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall Sub Unit #4, Headquarters Battalion, 3rd MarDiv was the designation for the Combined Action Program in the 3rd Marine Division area of responsibility. The Combined Action Program placed a small Marine unit, usually a squad with an attached Navy Corpsman, in a village where they lived, fought, and sometimes died alongside the villagers and the Popular Force militiamen. The 3rd MarDiv Operations Log for Sep 1967 contains the following entry: The entry describes an early morning (3 AM) attack on the CAP Alpha-6 compound at Ga Xe Lua village, located on Highway QL-1 about halfway between Hue and Phu Bai. The attackers penetrated the perimeter, killed five Marines, seriously wounded 13 others (10 Marines, 3 PFs), and effectively destroyed the buildings and equipment within the compound before they withdrew, leaving eight of their dead behind. The Marines killed in the attack were SSgt Joe Gillespie, San Antonio, TX; Sgt Ronald L. Black, Jacksonville, IL; Sgt Nelson D. Neal, Chicago, IL; Sgt Dallas Ratliff, Webster Springs, WV; and LCpl Richard R. Mullin, Roselle, IL.

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