CHARLES R. WETZEL
Home Of Record:
PENNS GROVE
County:
Salem
Status:
Killed In Action
Rank:
PFC
Branch Of Service:
Marines
Country Of Incident:
SVN
Date of Casualty:
March 04, 1966
Date of Birth:
December 24, 1945
CHARLES ROBERT WETZEL
PFC - E2 - Marine Corps - Regular
Length of service 1 years
Casualty was on Mar 4, 1966
In QUANG NGAI, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered
Panel 05E - Line 111
|
Charles
Robert Wetzel (Chuck) was born on December 24, 1945, into the small family
of Edward Herman Wetzel and Caroline Ostair Wetzel (nee Soders) at Salem
Hospital, Salem, NJ. His parents took Chuck home from the hospital to the
small house they rented in Pennsville, NJ. Also at home was Chuck’s two-year
old brother, Edward, Jr. Chuck’s mother was a homemaker in a time when most
mothers were at home with their children. Chuck’s father had enlisted in the
US Army at age 16 during the Great Depression when no jobs were available.
After some time in the Army he worked in construction. During World War II,
he served at US Army training camps in the US and then was shipped to
Okinawa for the planned invasion of Japan just before the end of the war.
After leaving the Army, Chuck’s father was employed as a structural steel
ironworker working on bridges and buildings.
Another brother, Budd, came along in 1947. When Chuck was about three years
old, his parents moved the family to their new home on Old Wiley Road, Penns
Grove, NJ, that Chuck’s father and maternal uncle, Budd, had built
themselves. As life turned out for Chuck, this was the only home that he
would ever really know.
As time went on, another brother, Thomas, was born in 1948. Soon it was time
to start school, and Chuck entered kindergarten at St. James Grammar School
in Penns Grove. This was an old-fashioned parochial school where all the
teachers and administrators were nuns wearing full habit. At St. James,
discipline and responsibility were the most important subjects taught. These
learned characteristics would both serve and haunt Chuck and his siblings
throughout their lives.
Growing up in the Wetzel household in the 1950’s was barely controlled
chaos. By then there were four boys growing up separated in age by only
seven years. A sister, Edna May, joined the growing family in 1952, followed
by another brother, John in 1954. The house was constantly filled with kids,
cats, dogs and constant noise and sibling rivalry.
Times were economically hard for the growing Wetzel family. Chuck’s father
had a seasonal job and was often without work through the winter weather.
“Hand-me-down” clothes from cousins, cardboard patches in shoes with holes,
delayed dental care and frustrated desires for the latest toys advertised on
the new television programs were reality. Times were especially hard around
Christmas when Chuck’s father was usually unemployed. The service
organizations like the Moose, VFW and American Legion often helped out with
Christmas food baskets and toys for the kids.
Chuck’s mother was instrumental in instilling a sense of pride in her young
family. She always assured us that other families had it really rough and
were indeed poor. We were lucky and should always be aware that there were
poor people in the world that we should care about. By the standards of
middle class society in 1950’s America, we were indeed poor but our mother
shielded us from that realization.
The material hardships were more than compensated for by the tremendous
opportunities for good clean fun in the outdoors. The family had only one
car and when Chuck was small, our mother did not drive. Since we lived quite
a distance from town, out in the country, the children amused themselves
with outdoor activities like exploring, swimming, raft building and building
tree houses.
At eleven years of age, Chuck joined Boy Scout Troup 3 that was sponsored by
the Union Presbyterian Church in Carneys Point, NJ. He enjoyed the camping,
canoeing and general good fun associated with Scouting. Camping trips and
other activities were often shared with his brothers. Chuck enjoyed Scouting
and achieved the third highest Scouting rank, Star Scout.
In 1960, Chuck graduated from St. James Grammar School and then entered St.
James High School in Carneys Point. At this time, Chuck achieved his full
growth at six feet tall, about 170 lbs. with dark blond hair and blue eyes.
Chuck played football in high school. His football coach remembered that
“Charley was as strong as an ox” and “…as quiet as could be and in a sense
was the shy type”. The coach also remembered him “as a fine young man who I
respected as an athlete for his courage and devotion to his task at hand.
Never complaining, just doing his job and a man on the team that never
spoke, but you knew all along he was there.”
Chuck also worked after school helping out at a small one-man auto repair
shop in town. Another brother, Paul, was born in 1962, while Chuck was still
in high school. Chuck graduated from St. James High School on June 8, 1964.
Not planning on going to college and having no real job prospects, Chuck
decided to enlist in the Marine Corps in July, 1964, only one month after
graduation. His home of record is Penns Grove, NJ. Up to this time, Chuck
had not traveled more than 100 miles from home, so going to Marine Boot Camp
at Parris Island, SC, was an exciting experience. Chuck completed boot camp
without incident, was declared a full-fledged Marine and assigned to Camp
Lejeune, NC, in September 1964. Chuck had only one leave home in November
1964, before his ultimate transfer to Vietnam. During this leave, he made a
point of visiting all his family and assuring them that he was happy with
his decision to join the Marine Corps.
In early December 1964, Chuck was transferred to Camp Pendleton, CA, for
Advanced Infantry Training. Chuck made several trips with fellow Marines to
Los Angeles, which he happily described to the family in his letters.
The political situation was heating up in Southeast Asia, and on May 24,
1965, Chuck shipped out on the USS Pickaway from San Diego, CA. The ordinary
Marines on the USS Pickaway had no idea where they were going. All they knew
was that they had orders to pack their gear, load the ship and head out into
the Pacific Ocean. On June 1, 1965, the USS Pickaway landed at Pearl Harbor,
HI. The Marines enjoyed three days liberty in Hawaii before boarding ship
and heading for Okinawa in the far Pacific. Chuck arrived at Okinawa on June
18, 1965. It is not known whether Chuck knew that his father was in Okinawa
only 19 years earlier.
After landing in Okinawa, orders were given to unload all the equipment from
the USS Pickaway. Then orders were given to reload all their equipment onto
the USS Okanogan. They set sail again into the Pacific Ocean about June 24,
1965. Again, the grunt Marines and probably even the officers on board had
no idea what their real destination was. Somewhere in the far Pacific orders
were received from Washington to proceed to Vietnam.
On July 7, 1965, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines onboard the USS Okanogan
arrived at Qui Nhon in Vietnam. After an unopposed amphibious landing at Qui
Nhon, Chuck’s battalion operated roadblocks and checkpoints on National
Route 1 and sent its infantry companies on patrol into the hills and valleys
around Qui Nhon. The real mission of the unit was to provide security for
the buildup of larger forces that the US Army was going to deploy through
the port of Qui Nhon. Chuck served as a rifleman on many recon patrols and
night ambushes, but rarely saw any action or had a glimpse of the enemy. In
his letters from this time, he spoke of the boredom, lack of hot food, the
sudden terror of night actions, torment of biting insects and the intense
rain. Chuck asked his parents to send him hard candy, insect repellent for
the bugs and steel wool to deal with the constant rusting of his rifle.
Chuck was hospitalized with malaria at the 85th Evacuation Hospital near Qui
Nhon from about November 4 through December 10, 1965. In letters home during
this period, Chuck said that he was well cared for but expressed concern
that “malaria can sometimes stay with you for the rest of your life.” After
he was released from the hospital, Chuck rejoined his battalion, which had
transferred to the Chu Lai enclave around November 12th.
When he rejoined the battalion, Chuck found that his company, Echo, had been
transferred to another Marine division, the 4th Marines. Chuck was then
reassigned to another company, Hotel, in the battalion. The implication of
this reassignment was that Chuck was in a new group of men that did not know
him well so he had to prove himself all over again.
Around the end of January 1966, Chuck volunteered for 60mm mortar training.
He became a member of a team of nine men in a mortar section that handled
two guns and provided general support to Hotel Company. Since Chuck was a
PFC, he was designated as an ammunition carrier. The mortar team trained
through about the middle of February, and then participated in Operation
Double Eagle Phase II. This operation lasted from February 19th through the
28th. Chuck wrote home that he did quite a lot of walking and his company
was harassed by snipers all the time. He also wrote that he was “glad their
fire wasn’t very accurate, if it was, a lot more people would have been
hurt.”
The exhausted battalion returned to the Chu Lai enclave late in the
afternoon of February 28, and the next day was back on the defensive
perimeter at the base. Chuck took advantage of this relative down time to
write what would be his last letters home on March 2nd. He made sure to
answer every letter he had received, and wrote a letter to everyone in the
family. In all these letters, Chuck assured everyone that he was reasonably
healthy, proud to be a Marine and expected to arrive home safely in early
summer.
Early on the morning of March 4, 1966, the battalion organized for a
helicopter air lift to a landing zone about nine miles northwest of Quang
Ngai City, near the small hamlet of Chau Nhai. The terrain encountered by
the Marines was comparatively flat, unobstructed by obstacles or heavy
foliage, dotted with rice paddies, crisscrossed by hedgerows and overlooked
by several nearby low hills. The first units into the landing zone were met
by fierce enemy gunfire. In the course of the landing, two helicopters were
shot down in the landing zone and another about a mile away. By 1:30 in the
afternoon, all the elements of Hotel company had arrived and were employed
in securing a hilltop overlooking the landing zone from which the enemy was
raking with heavy weapons fire. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, Hotel Company
was ordered back to the vicinity of the landing zone to aid Fox Company,
which was desperately engaged with the enemy. Sometime during this brief
time period, the war and life ended for Chuck. The details of his death can
not be determined exactly due to the passage of many years and the chaotic
nature of the engagement.
The Wetzel family was later notified of Chuck’s fatal injuries via telegram,
which partially stated, “I deeply regret to inform you that your son,
Private First Class Charles R. Wetzel, died March 4, 1966, in the vicinity
of Quang Ngai, Republic of Viet Nam. He sustained a gunshot wound in the
head while participating in an operation against hostile forces.” The
telegram was signed by General Wallace M. Green Jr., Commandant of the
Marine Corps.
The action of March 4, 1966, was graced several days later with the name
Operation Utah. During this operation, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines and
its attached support units suffered a loss of forty-four men killed in
action, and one man who died of his wounds. A total of 120 men were wounded,
79 of whom had to be evacuated out of Vietnam for treatment. Chuck’s
company, Hotel, suffered 21 KIAs and at least 31 wounded out of a maximum of
150 men deployed. March 4, 1966 was a very bad day for Hotel Company.
At the time of his death, at the age of 20, Chuck was survived by his
parents, five brothers, one sister and his maternal grandmother. His older
brother, Edward, age 22 was married with one child and a student at Rutgers
University. His next younger brother, Budd, age 18, had just graduated from
high school and enlisted in the Air Force the previous summer. Thomas, age
17 and sister, Edna May, age 13 were both in high school. John, age 11, was
in grammar school and Paul, age 4, had not yet started school.
Chuck’s mother was devastated by the loss of her son, but had little time to
spare for grief. She had to continue to try and maintain a healthy family
atmosphere for the young children still at home. Her son’s loss in Vietnam
was the first casualty from the small town of Penns Grove. There were
tremendous public displays of shock and concern and many people offered what
emotional support they could. However, astonishingly at this early point in
the Vietnam conflict, she had to endure the taunts of anonymous strangers
expressing joy over the loss of her son because they did not support an
increasingly unpopular war. In 1984, she had the sad pride of seeing her
son’s name engraved on the newly completed Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in
Washington, DC. She endured it all, died in 1986, and is fondly remembered
by her family as a pillar of strength.
Chuck’s father took his death so hard that it arguably contributed to his
early death at 66 years in 1981. To the extent that a father can have a
favorite son, Chuck was it. Being a WW II veteran, he was especially
devastated by the controversy about the war at home, lack of sympathy about
the loss of his son, and the sometimes cruel remarks he and his wife
received from ignorant strangers. His basic life beliefs were shattered, he
became embittered and couldn’t handle the increasing pain caused by a
lifetime of hard physical labor.
Members of the Wetzel family continued to serve in the military. Budd
completed four years in the Air Force based mostly in the Philippines.
Thomas joined the Navy after high school and spent four years on an
ammunition ship and aircraft carrier in the Pacific. John enlisted in the
Army, for three years after high school, and was based in Germany.
Fortunately, no more Wetzel family members were exposed to the horrors of
combat. The small town of Penns Grove was not so fortunate. By the end of
the war, eleven young men from the area had died in Vietnam from a town no
larger than about 5,000 people.
Chuck was posthumously awarded the following military decorations: Purple
Heart (US), National Defense Service Medal (US), Vietnam Service Medal (US),
Marine Corps Combat Action Ribbon (US), Navy Unit Citation (US),
Presidential Unit Citation (US), Gallantry Cross Medal with Palm (RVN),
Military Merit Medal (RVN) and the Vietnam Campaign Medal with Date (RVN).
Chuck now lies at eternal rest between the graves of his parents in St.
Mary’s Cemetery in Salem, New Jersey. As a symbolic homecoming gesture,
Chuck’s father had arranged that the funeral procession drive by the family
home on the way to the cemetery.
Notes:
Budd C. Wetzel died tragically as the result of an automobile accident on
March 14, 2002.
Charles Robert Wetzel, II born on September 9, 1966, was named after the
uncle he never had a chance to know. “Charlie” is the son of Chuck’s
brother, Edward.
Sources: Edward Wetzel (brother) and NJVVMF
MESSAGES LEFT ON THEWALL-USA (as of 2/28/09)
** Note that some of these
messages are from years ago and there contact information may not be good
anymore ** Angela Bates
Holloway
AngieHollo@aol.com
Same Last Name
Today was my first day to find this website and when I scanned through the
people that died today, your name stood out. My brother was also in Vietnam,
however, he was a Bates that came home. I am sorry for your family that you
were not able to do the same. Thank you for your sacrifice to keep our
country free. You will not be forgotton.
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 If you would like
to add a story, comment, or contact, please email
CCVietnamKIA@gmail.com
|