Tributes Index - Avenue of Flags

Paul J. Hess Jr.

Hermitage, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

When 1st Lt. Paul J. Hess, Jr., was deployed to Vietnam on September 14, 1966, he was assigned to very hazardous duty. As a Special Forces officer in the Central Highlands, he worked with a Civilian Irregular Defense Group – a counterinsurgency operation in which U.S. Special Forces worked with Vietnamese villagers to defend villages and conduct combat operations. His character and personal commitment was evident when he started a boy scout troop among the tribes that surrounded his base camp.

Despite the demands of his daily military duties, Lt. Hess remembered the folks back home. He sent a flag from Vietnam to the Shenango Valley Veteran’s Day Parade Committee.

On Veteran’s Day, November 11, 1966, the day the flag was used in the parade, Lt. Hess was killed in combat.

Descriptions of specific incidents in the Vietnam War are hard to find, but the web site of the 174th Assault Helicopter Company presents a detailed report of Lt. Hess’s last mission. According to Lt. Col. Marty Heuer, who served in 174th AHC, Lt. Hess was an observer on a helicopter gunship in support of a 25th Infantry Division operation against an enemy stronghold west or Pleiku, near the Cambodian border.

The rectangular landing zone was about two-thirds the size of a football field, mostly level, covered with three- to five-feet tall elephant grass, with two trees in the center. It was surrounded by triple-canopy jungle with 150-feet tall trees – perfect cover and concealment for the enemy.

Unfortunately, the LZ was beyond the range of any supporting artillery. The operation commander decided to continue with just the firepower provided by a dozen helicopter gunships in support of the troop-carrying “slicks” – UH1-B helicopters lacking weapons pods, with firepower provided only by door gunners operating 50-caliber machine guns.

Lt. Hess was aboard one of the gunships as an observer and possibly door gunner. As the helicopter was making a gunrun at low level, it was hit by small arms and/or 50-caliber machine gun fire. It exploded and crashed into the jungle in a ball of fire.

When examined later, the gunship was found to have been perforated with 99 holes from small arms fire.

Paul was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Hess, Sr. He also left behind his wife, nee Donna Saibene; daughter Kimberly Ruth; three sisters and two brothers.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 12E Line 54

Miles Bradley Hedglin

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

The terrain in Vietnam varies from the broad, flat flood plains of the Mekong Delta to the mountainous terrain of the central highlands, covered with triple canopy jungles. Miles Bradley Hedglin of Mercer ended up in the latter when he was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry [photos] in Kontum Province, in January, 1969.

We can get a sense of what he went through there by reading the memoirs of Robert Granger, another soldier who was there at the time. He tells of the things you would expect: night patrols, incoming mortar and artillery rounds, close calls, enemy attacks on their base camps.

But Granger also tells of other aspects of jungle combat in Vietnam. In March, 1969, encamped on a hill designated as Hill 467, Company B was bombarded with artillery, mortar, and rockets for days. A sniper wreaked havoc on them; an airstrike failed to silence him, and patrols sent out to locate him could not do so. Water and food were getting low, and enemy fire prevented helicopters from resupplying them.

Three soldiers brought back several ammo containers of water from a stream that wasn’t far away.

“We were given two canteens each,” Granger wrote. “I filtered the leaches and algae out through the top of a dirty sock, then added the iodine tablets. Later in the day, one of the guys from another platoon offered me $480 for a canteen of my water. I turned him down.”

Granger’s descriptions of events on March 25 are gruesome. Granger sums up the events of March 25 in a few words: “Haven’t had any sleep to speak of in days. The lack of water and food and constant shelling is taking its toll on everyone. A five minute nap is about all I can get at one time. The night time probing and hearing the digging, moaning of their wounded and movement just outside the wire, with it dark enough not to be able to see a thing keeps everyone alert every minute.”

He attributes his survival to his guardian angel, since a B-40 rocket and a hand grenade exploded close to him without even inflicting a wound. PFC Miles Hedglin’s guardian angel must have dozed off. Miles was killed while providing cover fire to free others in his unit.

To get a sense of what PFC Hedglin experienced during his last few days, you can read an after action report covering the 2nd Battalion 8th Infantry from March 17 through March 21, 1969, just a few days before PFC Hedglin was killed.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W28 Line 36

Paul Good

Good, Paul

Sharpsville, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

PFC Paul Good was drafted into the army after graduating from Sharpsville High School in 1965. When he arrived in Vietnam on May 9, 1967, he was assigned to Company A, 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division.

The Ninth Division was part of the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF), a joint force combining Navy and Army units to operate in the unique environment of the Mekong Delta.

There, conventional military maneuvers couldn’t be used because many stream, rivers, and canals severely restricted ground movement. The solution was to use helicopters and converted Navy vessels to insert army troops into areas where they were needed and to provide firepower in support of their operations. Because of the novelty of the situation, both equipment and tactics had to be invented.

As one member of the MRF wrote, “The Navy did the most in terms of development of equipment and how to use it. The Army did the same old stuff, only wetter. We went to war in boats and then got out and walked, waded, wallowed, swam, crawled, or ran until we were picked up again.”

The ships ranged in size from large troop ships, each of which provided living space for more than 800 troops, to armored troop carriers, modified LSTs that could carry an infantry platoon, and smaller, faster Swift Boats. Used to insert and extract infantry from combat situations, they also provided close-in fire support with 20mm cannons, .50 caliber machine guns, and grenade launchers, as well as small arms. Some of the larger vessels carried 105mm howitzers.

Planning for the MRF had begun in the summer of 1966, and the first elements arrived in January, 1967. By summer, 1967, enough river craft had been deployed to carry out sustained search and destroy missions. The full complement of vessels was not assembled until 1968.

That means that PFC Good participated in some of the earliest combat conducted by the MRF, including a major battle on June 19, 1967. Helicopters and Navy boats moved his unit into an area full of Vietcong troops. The ensuing battle left more than 250 Vietcong dead; 47 Americans were killed and many wounded. One platoon had 13 left out of the 35 who started the day.

After the battle, Paul Good was reported as missing. His body was recovered later.

He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 22E Line 012

Maurice Garrett Jr.

Garrett, Maurice

Lackawannock Township, Mercer County, PA

U. S. Army – Vietnam

In Mercer County, Capt. Maurice Garrett Jr. is one of the most recognizable names among those on the Vietnam War Memorial. That’s largely because of the long-standing uncertainty as to whether or not it should be there.

The doubts started from the time of the initial investigation of his helicopter crash on October 22, 1971. Capt. Garrett was flying an AH1G Cobra on an armed visual reconnaissance mission out of Quang Tri, along with three other helicopters. The weather was “marginal,” so Capt. Garrett ordered the other copters to hold while he flew into a valley to check it out. Five minutes later, he reported that he had zero visibility and would return to Quang Tri on instruments.

He never made it. His helicopter apparently crashed after hitting some trees. The aircraft exploded with such force that few identifiable parts of the aircraft remained. A search of the area found the remains of his co-pilot, but none of Capt. Garrett.

That left investigators with two possible conclusions. Because of violence of the explosion, they concluded that Capt. Garrett couldn’t possibly have survived the inferno, and that his body had been completely destroyed in the fire.

However, there remained the slight possibility that Capt. Garrett had somehow survived because something should have survived, such as helmet, watch, dentures, boot eyelets, and dog tabs. But none of those were found.

This second possibility was reinforced in 1984 when the Garrett family was told by a private source that Capt. Garrett was alive. Seven other families received similar word. Although the U.S. government said the information was false, it renewed the hope that Capt. Garrett was still alive, possibly a prisoner of war – a hope shared by his family, friends, and MIA groups.

Whatever his fate, Capt. Garrett was a true hero in the Vietnam War. A paratrooper during his first tour in Vietnam from December 1967 to December 1968, he was wounded three times, and was awarded his first Silver Star for “utmost bravery and heroism.”

Back in the U.S., he learned to fly the Cobra, then returned to Vietnam in December, 1970. Before his helicopter crashed, he had received a second Silver Star, a National Defense Medal, two Bronze Stars with valor device, three Purple Hearts, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and several Vietnamese medals.

Capt Garrett is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice E. Garrett, Lackawannock Township.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 02W Line 047

Richard A. Funelli, Jr.

Funelli, Richard

Farrell, PA

U.S. Marines, Vietnam

In January, 1967, a kid watched the funeral of Marine Cpl. Richard A. Funelli, Jr. in Farrell, PA.

“I was in seventh grade and watched his funeral from a school window across the street from Our Lady of Fatima Church,” wrote Chip Krokoski. “His Honor Guard, dressed in their Blues, seemed impervious to the miserable weather that day. The conduct of those Marines that day instilled in me the desire to seek a military career.”

Krokoski did indeed become a career officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He never lost his desire to know more about Cpl. Funelli. He finally got some answers many years later after posting a question on the Internet.

“Cpl Funelli was a machine gunner,” wrote fellow combatant Harry Faber. “His position was hit by sappers and the sand bags fell on top of him and he died that way. . . . A lot of positions were hit with satchel charges that night. My hootch was blown up , even what I was sleeping on! It was like Custer’s last stand!”

“I remember Cpl. Funelli quite well,” wrote Jon Bolton, a survivor of that 15 January attack. “He had a great sense of humor. He made us laugh a lot.”

Bolton’s account of that night seems slightly at odds with Faber’s. “I remember Funelli initially surviving for some time after being wounded. He was lying on the ground outside of his bunker. In fact, I remember the Corpsman standing over him as he begged for Morphine to ease his pain.”

The information on the virtualwall.org that Cpl. Funelli died of artillery, mortar, or rocket fire would support Bolton’s version. The bottom line is this: it really doesn’t matter. Such variations can be attributed to the intense confusion that always surrounds close combat.

This was the second time Cpl. Funelli had been hit with shrapnel. He had been evacuated to Japan in March, 1966, to recuperate from wounds to his legs. He returned to Vietnam in late September.

Cpl. Funelli was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Funelli, Sr., of Farrell. Richard Funelli Sr. served with the Marine Corps in World War II on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Cpl. Funelli enlisted in the Marine Corps two months after graduating from Farrell High School. He left behind his parents and a brother, Gerald, who was a ninth grader at Kennedy Christian High School at the time of Richard’s death.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 14E Line 34

Paul Frederick Foulk

Foulk, Paul

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army, Vietnam

Paul Frederick Foulk of Greenville was drafted in October, 1968, but unlike most draftees, he could have avoided being sent to Vietnam.

“My father knew a high ranking person in the army who said he could arrange for Paul to be assigned to Germany,” said his sister, Linda Brown. “But Paul wouldn’t do that. He volunteered to go to Vietnam because he felt it was his duty.”

When Paul was in training in Oklahoma, his friends thought he was in big trouble. A lieutenant colonel came to the barracks looking for him. But it was just one of his dad’s friends coming to take him home for dinner.

He arrived in Vietnam on April 4, 1969, and was assigned to B Battery, 1st Battalion, 21st Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division in Bien Hoa, just north of Saigon.

The problem with firing artillery at the enemy is that artillery pieces make a lot of noise and blow out a lot of smoke. That makes you a prime target for enemy artillery.

Sometimes you luck out.

“A guy who knew him in Vietnam visited us,” Linda said. “He said that one time a mortar round or something landed near Paul, but it didn’t go off. “They figured out that it was a time release bomb, the first one they had ever seen. A lot of officials came in to check it out.”

And sometimes you don’t luck out. On September 7, 1969, Paul was killed by an enemy round.

He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Foulk, and by two sisters, Linda and Judy.

Paul was posthumously awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W18 Line 54

Sgt. Carl James (Jim) Forrester

Forrester, Carl James

Carl James (Jim) Forrester

Mercer, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Jim Forrester was the kind of first that no one wants to be. He was the first Mercer County resident to be killed in the Vietnam War.

Sgt. Forrester had joined the army in 1962, two years before the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that led to the deployment of U.S. ground forces into Vietnam. He had served in Turkey, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico before being assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 7th Cavalry.

His tour began on January 18, 1966. On January 25, just a week after he arrived, the 3rd Brigade moved with other units from its base camp to a staging area in eastern Binh Dinh Province. From there, the 7th Cav launched Operation Masher. The 3rd Brigade opened an assault that was heavily resisted by the North Vietnamese Army. On February 1st, the NVA withdrew to the north and west. Enemy losses swelled to 1,350 killed in action, rendering two battalions of the NVA’s 22nd ineffective. The U.S. Army lost only seventy-seven men, but one of those was Sgt. Forrester. While participating in a night drop from a helicopter, Sgt. Forrester was raked by machine gun fire. He died instantly from a head wound.

When news of his death arrived here, a friend told the Sharon Herald that Sgt. Forrester had had a premonition of his death. On New Year’s Eve, shortly before his deployment, he had given this friend his airborne tie tack and said, “I don’t think I am coming back.”

That was not an uncommon feeling among those assigned to Vietnam, many of whom did in fact come back. Unfortunately, for Sgt. Forrester, it proved to be true. He never came back to his wife and three children.

Sgt. Forrester was honored at the Mercer Memorial 500 in 2007.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 4E Line 128

David Garth Finnegan

Finnegan, David

Sharon, PA

U.S. Army, Vietnam

Dong Ap Bia is a mountain in Thua Thien Province, Vietnam, west south west of Hue, within range of North Vietnamese Army mortars positioned across the border in Laos. In military terminology, it was known as Hill 937, since it was 937 meters high. But it is best known as Hamburger Hill, largely due to a 1987 movie of that name.

The movie focuses on the actions of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, of the 101st Airborne Division as it assaulted the hill, which was heavily defended by the North Vietnamese Army from interconnected trenchworks and bunkers. But that battalion was just one of three American army battalions and two battalions of the South Vietnamese Army to attack it, reinforced by an awesome accumulation of U.S. air power and artillery. One of the American units was the 101st Airborne’s 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry.

David Garth Finnegan was a sergeant in that battalion’s A Company.

The attack on Hill 937 developed during an attempt to clear the A Shau Valley of North Vietnamese elements. The valley was a vital link in the NVA’s resupply routes for men and materiel into the South. Before the battalions operation began, there was little reliable intelligence about the strengths and dispositions of the NVA. What they found on Hill 937 was a NVA elements solidly emplaced in an interconnected series of bunkers and entrenchments.

The American commanders thought at first that it was defended by a company-sized force. When the 3/187th Infantry ‘s assaults from the south were repulsed time and time again, the 1/506th was sent to attack from the north.

The American and South Vietnamese forces not only had to deal with the enemy, but also with the terrain and the weather. The steep hillsides turned to mud, making progress nearly impossible. It ended up taking ten days to reach the summit, in spite of 272 attack sorties by the Air Force, more than a million pounds of bombs, and 152,000 pounds of napalm. Up there they found more than 630 dead soldiers from two NVA battalions.

Sgt. Finnegan was killed on May 18, 1969, two days before the American forces reached the summit – which was also barely a month before the American forces abandoned the hill and two months before the NVA reoccupied their fortifications there.

Why is a question which must often remain unanswered.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W24 Line 40

Paul E. Dufford

West Middlesex, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

On the evening of December 8, 1967, soldiers of the 1st Battalion 2nd Infantry were complaining that their air mattresses were full of holes from enemy mortar fire. Maybe they were seriously upset, but more likely it was their way of dissipating the stress caused by a rough day.

They were positioned in Phuoc Long Province, not far from the Cambodian border. The day before, one of their recon patrols had encountered the point element of a North Vietnamese army unit. The fight lasted only a short time, with no American casualties. That successful recon alerted the Americans to the presence of the large NVA force.

At 0200 the following morning, Specialist Paul Dufford from West Middlesex was manning a listening post with two other men in front of the battalion’s night defensive position. Detecting movement in the area, he radioed the battalion commander to warn of an impending attack. Their position was quickly surrounded by a large force. In spite of the danger, Specialist Dufford remained at his post so he could advise the commander on the size and movement of the enemy.

With the battalion being hit by heavy mortar fire, the three men were ordered to return to the perimeter, but their position was overrun before they could do so. An enemy grenade wounded all three men. Specialist Dufford killed the grenade thrower, who was only a few feet away. Ignoring the relentless enemy fire, he started to help his wounded comrades back to the perimeter. As the enemy closed in, he provided suppressing fire that allowed his comrades to reach safety.

He himself didn’t make it. He was killed my an enemy mortar round.

That day, the American forces repelled the massive assault with only four dead and a number wounded. The two battalions of the two 273rd NVA regiment that conducted the attack suffered massive casualties.

Had it not been for the bravery of Specialist Paul Dufford, the outcome might have been very different. For his heroism that night, he was awarded the Silver Star.

Paul was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dufford of West Middlesex, PA. The Hickory High School graduate was decorated not only with the Silver Star, but also with a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantry Badge, and Vietnam Service medals.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial – Panel 31e Line 64

Richard Joseph Drivere

Drivere, Richard

New Wilmington, PA

U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

Pvt Richard Joseph Drivere arrived in Vietnam on August 20, 1968. Assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, he entered into a very hot combat zone in Quang Tri Province, just south of the so-called Demilitarized Zone.

When he arrived, the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines were in a serious confrontation with a North Vietnamese regiment around hilly terrain with names like Mutters Ridge, Razorback, and Hill 471.

But maybe it wasn’t so hot; but for sure it was very wet. Mother Nature attacked in early September with a super-typhoon names Agnes. Out over the South China Sea, it had produced winds clocked at 175 miles per hour. By the time it hit the Quang Tri area, those had diminished, but remained strong enough to slam the rain horizontally with such intensity that visibility was near zero. It kept troops on the hilltops from being resupplied for as many as five days.

One Marine wrote home that he and his fellow Marines had run out of C-rations, and were making soup out of water, ketchup, and a little onion. They tried to keep their stomachs warm with hot Kool-Aid.

In spite of that, the battle continued whenever it was possible. The 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines ran into a North Vietnamese regiment north of the Razorback, and the 1st and 2nd Battalions were rushed into position to block the NVA’s escape routes.

The 2nd Battalion came upon a regimental supply area and captured 10,000 mortar rounds, 13,000 hand grenades, and hundreds of rockets.

Some time in all this action, Pvt Drivere was killed by enemy small arms fire.

The 1965 grad of Wilmington Area High School was the son of Joseph and Helen Drivere. He had a sister, Margaret, and a brother, David.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W44 Line 16

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