Warren Peter Ritsema
Staff Sergeant
3RD PLT, C CO, 1ST BN, 46TH INFANTRY, AMERICAL DIV, USARV
Army of the United States
Fremont, Michigan
March 20, 1949 to March 28, 1971
WARREN P RITSEMA is on the Wall at Panel W4, Line 89

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Warren P Ritsema
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05 Aug 2006

You are gone but you are not forgotten!

From a family friend,
Carolynn ( Cumings) Favreau
cartom@marktwain.net


 

A Note from The Virtual Wall

On the night of 27/28 March 1971 Fire Support Base (FSB) Mary Ann was occupied by 209 Americans from several units of the Americal Division:
  • HHC 1/46th Infantry;
  • C Co 1/46th Infantry;
  • a Recon Platoon;
  • elements of a Mortar Platoon;
  • two 155mm howitzer sections, 3/16th Arty; and
  • twenty ARVN artillerymen.
At approximately 0230 hours, 28 March 1971, the VC mounted a coordinated mortar and sapper attack. Almost simultaneously with the mortar attack, sappers employed satchel charges and rocket propelled grenades (RPG) to penetrate the FSB's perimeter. Americans in the perimeter bunkers hunkered down until the explosions from the mortar rounds, satchel charges, and RPGs had subsided, but by then the sappers had breached the trench line and were inside the base. Once inside FSB Mary Ann, the sappers struck over half the bunkers.

By the time the VC withdrew, 30 American soldiers were dead and 76 wounded. According to the Department of Defense's casualty database 12 of the 30 dead were killed by friendly fires; the Army's TAGCEN file amplifies that by attributing the deaths to artillery fire.


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