Terrence Kuzak

Farrell, PA

Marine Corps – Vietnam

Many people have heard of the Bridge over the River Kwai because of the popular 1957 movie starring Alec Guinness. Set in World War II, it shows British and American prisoners of war building a magnificent bridge with great engineering but few other resources, then destroying it. The movie’s stirring theme song was played by practically every high school and college band in the country.

Because of the excellence of the movie, few people realize that the story is entirely fictional. Surpassing it in every way was the very real Liberty Bridge across the Thu Bon River 80 miles south of Da Nang. Built in 1967 by Navy Seabees (nickname based on the pronunciation of C-B, for Construction Battalion) , under constant harassment from enemy forces, it was 2,040 feet long, 32 feet above the low water level.

Before its completion, all traffic on Route 1 south of Da Nang had to be ferried across the river one vehicle at a time. This slowed convoys literally to a standstill, and set each truck out as a slow-moving target. Because of its vital strategic role, the Viet Cong attacked the bridge constantly to destroy it or control it.

The mission to defend it was given to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. That was the unit to which Marine Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was assigned when he arrived in Vietnam on July 28, 1969. He undoubtedly heard stories about the tremendous battle around the bridge that took place on March 19, 1969, when a battalion-sized enemy force attacked a little after midnight. That day, a Navy corpsman named David R. Ray was killed while relentlessly disregarding his own safety to save others. For that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Command Chronology of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines for 9 December 1969, the day that Lance Corporal Kuzak was wounded, includes the following entry: “0930H – While on sweep at AT849546 Co F tripped a boobytrap consisting of 60mm w/trip wire, resulting in 1 Priority-Evac. Medevac wall called and completed.” Although the chronology doesn’t mention Lance Corporal Kuzak by name, that was the only entry on that mentioned a casualty.

Kuzak survived evacuation to a naval hospital in Yokosura, Japan. During his fight to recover there, his doctors appealed to the folks back home to flood him with cards and letters to keep up his spirits. But he died on Christmas Eve, 1969.

Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was the only child of Michael and Ann Ciccarone Kuzak, R.D. 1 West Middlesex. He was a 1969 graduate of Farrell High School.

Lance Corporal Kuzak was the 31st Mercer County serviceman to be killed in the Vietnam War.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W15 Line 90

Thaddeus M. Yonika, Jr.

West Middlesex, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

For a helicopter pilot, excellence doesn’t guarantee survival. Thaddeus M. Yonika, Jr., of West Middlesex, enlisted under the U.S. Army’s warrant officer flight program in July, 1968. In February, 1969, he demonstrated his superior ability to fly helicopters by graduating sixth out of a class of 120 from primary helicopter school in February, 1969. He went on to the Rotary Wing Aviator course.

Two months later WO1 Yonika was flying attack helicopters in Vietnam with Troop A, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Division, headquartered in Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon, near the Cambodian border. His skill and potential were recognized by his platoon leader:

“Thad Yonika was a Cobra Pilot in my Red Platoon. He said he wanted to get closer to the fight and requested a transfer to the Scout Platoon. I approved the move reluctantly because of his great potential to become a Red Platoon Aircraft Commander but his enthusiasm to fly Scouts was really genuine and we knew that he showed some of the unique qualities that would make him a great Scout.”

WO Yonika was assigned to fly a Cayuse Light Observation Helicopter. His job was to fly over suspected enemy locations to get shot at. His crew would mark the location of the source of the fire; attack helicopters such as Cobras would swoop in to destroy the enemy.

The Cayuse had the reputation of being able to take a lot of hits and still keep flying. But it wasn’t invulnerable.

On 21 December 1969 while flying OH-6A tail number 67-16142, WO Yonika and his crew encountered a force of NVA at a location we called Pearson’s Field, near the Cambodian border. His LOH was hit by enemy fire and as he evaded away from the NVA and tried to land outside the enemy’s fire the aircraft crashed. Unfortunately, the aircraft exploded and Thad along with Chris “Kippy” Gray (gunner/ Torque) and Barry Kaletta (observer) were killed.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus M. Yonika, Sr., of West Middlesex, Thad was a Rotary International Exchange Student to South Africa in 1966. After graduation from West Middlesex High School in 1966, he attended Shenango Campus of Penn State University and worked as an orderly at Sharon General Hospital.

He is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W15 Line 81

Theodore Hubert Dalton

Hermitage, PA

U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

Even before graduating, Ted Dalton told his friends he wanted to be a Marine, and tried to get others to sign up with him. He managed to get one to go into the Marines with him.

Over strenuous objections from his father, Edward Dalton, he enlisted in the Marine Corps barely a month after graduating from Hickory High School in 1967. After completing training, he shipped out to Vietnam on December 14, 1967.

He was assigned to A Company , 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in Quang Nam Province, near Da Nang. It was not a pretty place. According to one report on the Internet, of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 were killed in Quang Nam Province.

In August, 1967, Corporal Dalton was wounded by a grenade; he returned to duty in early August.

In letters home, he thanked his father for being tough on him when he was growing up. He wrote that he couldn’t have made it without that.

By October, 1968, Ted was an experienced Marine, having been in combat for more than ten months. Unfortunately, experience doesn’t always guarantee survival. There is always this persistent fact: in the dark of night, in the thick of the jungle, one cannot distinguish friend from foe. Safety depends on careful planning, strict discipline, and precise execution of the plan. The slightest error in any of those aspects can result in disaster.

On the evening of October 31, 1968, something went wrong in one of those elements. Two squads of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines were positioned in the jungle to ambush enemy patrols. Their instructions were to shoot at anything that moved in front of them.

Something moved. They opened fire very effectively, killing two and mortally wounding one. Unfortunately, they weren’t enemy soldiers. They were fellow Marines.

One of those wounded was Marine Corporal Theodore Hubert Dalton from Sharpsville, PA. He was evacuated to the hospital in Da Nang.

“A friend who was there visited us later,” said brother Edward. “He said Ted was awake and in good spirits. But he was wounded in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine. If he had survived, he would have been paralyzed.”

But the hospital couldn’t save him. He died there on Friday, November 1, 1968.

“He was laid out in our home,” Edward said. “He had written that he wanted to see snow. On the day they brought him home, it snowed.”

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial l – 40W Line 074

Thomas R. Marshall

Sandy Lake, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

When Sgt. Thomas R. Marshall of Sandy Lake, PA, wrote home from Vietnam, he didn’t write about the horrors of war. He wrote about how beautiful the country and the people were. That’s not surprising, because he was an artist at heart. It takes an artist to focus on the beauty that can often be found in the midst of ugliness.

He enlisted in the army while he was a student at the Shenango Campus of Penn State University. According to his brother, Malcolm, he had received several draft notices and just got tired of being harassed. That was in June, 1968, two years after he had graduated from Lakeview High School in Sandy Lake.

“He was a very good artist,” Malcolm said. “He had a very bright future. And he was a super nice guy. He married Tracy Clark from Stoneboro a couple of weeks before he deployed.”

Tom took Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He went on to graduate from Non-Commissioned Officer School at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He headed for Vietnam on June 18, 1969, and was assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division in Tay Ninh Province, near the Cambodian border. As time went on, it should have been an optimistic time for troops in Vietnam. On November 3, 1969, in a major policy speech on Vietnam, President Richard Nixon made a major announcement:

“We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As South Vietnamese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.”

Withdrawal of American forces, including the 25th Infantry Division, did proceed. So did the intense combat, and the continuing deaths of American soldiers – including Sgt. Marshall, who was killed by small arms fire on December 11, 1969.

He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm D. Marshall of Sandy Lake; his wife, Tracy; three sisters and a brother.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W15 Line 48

Valentine Ambrose Ochs

Ochs, Valentine

Ochs, Valentine Ambrose

Sandy Lake PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

It was one thing to find an enemy unit in Vietnam. It was quite another to destroy it. When things weren’t going their way, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army were very adept at slipping away into the jungle to fight another day.

The solution was to cordon off the unit – completely surround it so it couldn’t escape. The classic example of that was the action at the end of April and beginning of May, 1968, a couple of miles northwest of Huế.

Valentine Ambrose Ochs, a mortar man from Sandy Lake serving with the 101st Airborne Division, was involved in that action.

An enemy force of unknown size was discovered to be holed up in the village of Phuoc Yen, in a bend of the Song Bo River. Fortunately, the NVA forces inside the village also didn’t know the strength of the force that would be thrown against them. In the early hours of the operation, they could have escaped by attacking the first elements being put in place. Before they did, they were surrounded by companies from three American battalions, elements from local Popular Forces, and the “Black Panther” Company of the 1st South Vietnamese Army.

With the enemy completely trapped, the American forces attacked relentlessly with artillery, helicopter gunships, and Air Force figher-bombers. After five days, 107 NVA soldiers surrendered, leaving the bodies of 419 of their comrades in the village. By this time, our attacking forces knew that they had eliminated the 8th Battalion, 90th NVA Regiment. Until that day, no other NVA force had surrendered en masse to an American military unit.

Unfortunately, PFC Ochs did not live to see that happen. He was killed by small arms fire during the battle, just 28 days after he had arrived in Vietnam.

He was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Ochs, Sandy Lake.

On the web site www.vvmf.org/thewall, his nephew, Tobias C. Ochs, posted the following tribute:

“Valentine Ochs was a kind caring young man. He loved his country and served it well. the news of Valentine Ochs’s death came on his dad’s birthday. All seven of his brothers and sisters will never forget their older brother. He was killed on April-28, 1968, a day that his family and friends will never forget.”

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 52E Line 41

William Rauber

Rauber, William

Wheatland, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

When he joined the army, William Rauber of Wheatland was following a military tradition established by his father, Drago Rauber. But Drago was never a part of the American armed forces. Born in Croatia, he served in the Croatian and British armies.

William was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1948. He was three years old when his parents emigrated to the United States. They settled in Wheatland, so William attended Farrell High School. He enlisted in the army in March, 1967.

He arrived in Vietnam on April 2, 1968, assigned to the Headquarters Company of the 6th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. That made him part of the Mobile Riverine Force in the Mekong Delta, probably heading into combat aboard the descriptively named Brown Water Navy.

The Mobile Riverine Force was a joint military operation between the U.S. Navy and the 9th Infantry Division. The soldiers were inserted into combat and extracted either via modified Navy vessels or helicopters. One Riverine veteran wrote that the typical tactical plan was to go up and down the rivers and canals until they were shot at. Then the Navy would blast the area with .50 caliber machine guns and other weapons, then land the infantry to pursue the enemy. It was dangerous, wet, and intense duty.

He was there barely enough time to get his feet wet. Probably a couple of weeks after arriving, he told his parents in a letter that “tomorrow we are going out for two to five days.” They received that letter the day after they were notified that he had been killed in action on April 25.

He was survived by his parents,three sisters, and two brothers.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 52E Line 10

William Smith

Smith, William

Hermitage, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

In the late 1960s, dropping out of college, even temporarily, was risky business. Bill Smith sat out the winter semester in his senior year because he had to ride his motorcycle to get to YSU. His plan to complete his degree in the warmer spring weather appeared to be doomed when the draft board sent him a draft notice. Fortunately, they agreed to postpone his induction until he graduated.

So right after graduating in 1968, Bill was in the U.S. Army, qualified to attend Officer Candidate School. The only branches available were the combat arms.

“I don’t know why,” he says, “but I chose infantry.”

Maybe not the best choice. Life in infantry units in Vietnam could be unpleasant and dangerous, especially for second lieutenants. That seemed to be where Bill was headed when he was sent to jungle warfare school after completing OCS.

Bill’s choice wasn’t so bad after all. He was assigned to the security detachment at the largest ammunition dump in Vietnam. What could be safer than being close to tons of high explosives capable of leveling the terrain for miles around?

Bill’s job was to keep that from happening. Before he arrived, the site’s security was in the hands of ordnance personnel who were neither trained nor equipped for the job.

“We did things differently,” Bill said.

With everything from tower guards to electronic surveillance, chain link fences extending four feet into the ground, mortar and artillery units to do recon by fire, and even guard dogs, Bill’s security detachment had to confront only one attack during his year there.

“By attack, I mean saboteurs trying to sneak in,” he said.

It turned out to be three young teenagers carrying satchel charges.

“We killed them. That hurt. But that’s the kind of war it was.”

But lack of action doesn’t mean lack of danger. That became apparent when the facility was closed down toward the end of Bill’s tour. All the ammo was transported to an RVN dump ten miles away. The night after the transfer was complete, the RVN dump blew up.

“We stayed in a bunker and watched it happening on the other side of the mountain,” he said.

His wife at Fort Benning heard about the Qui Nhom ammo dump being blown up. Contact with Bill through the Red Cross allayed her fears.

She was blessed when Lt. Bill Smith returned without a Purple Heart.