Otto William Baumann, Jr
Private First Class
D CO, 1ST BN, 8TH CAVALRY, 1ST CAV DIV, USARV
Army of the United States
Spotswood, New Jersey
July 23, 1946 to December 28, 1966
OTTO W BAUMANN Jr is on the Wall at Panel 13E, Line 89

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Otto W Baumann
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24 May 2002

From the Reader's Digest, May, 2002, page 150,"A Soldier's Story":

"His first major fight came on December 28, 1966. ... in the village of Gia Duc when Viet Cong opened fire. ... what pricks his memory. It's Skip Baumann, a 20 year old private. He kept getting up to see them.... And ... he got hit. I got him and was holding him. The reason I remember him so well is his last question. 'Am I a good soldier?'.... ..'You're a great soldier, you're the top. You're airborne.' And, of course, he passed away."

Sergeant Joe Musial

A memorial initiated by a reader.
E-mail address is not available.


 
15 May 2006

I just dug out a copy of my induction orders from 1965 to find this soldier's name near mine. We may have sat together on that first bus ride to the Fort Dix Reception Station... I don't know, but I found it eerie that we ended up in entirely different units... but very near to one another in Vietnam later in our military careers.

"Skip" died about 20 kilometers from a spot where I very nearly lost my life... ironically with the same Division - the 1st Cav.

Our serial numbers were nearly identical, differing by only 6 numbers, and we are both "Jersey" boys. God rest his soul.

Jim Sheppard
1st Battalion 50th (Mechanized) Infantry Association Historian.
kiss-ac@juno.com


 

A Note from The Virtual Wall

Operation THAYER II in the Suoi Ca Valley began on 16 December 1966. Two days after Christmas, Companies B and C of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, established contact with one NVA battalion and Delta 1/8 fought another, inflicting heavy casualties on the two NVA units at a cost of 15 men killed in action:
  • B Company:
    • 1LT Lamont W. Finch, Birmingham, AL
    • 1LT Daniel A. Hennessy, Newtown, PA (Dist Svc Cross)
    • PSGT Lonnie Barber, Fayetteville, NC
    • SP4 Eric A. Brannfors, Portland, OR
    • CPL Douglas D. Houg, McGregor, IA
    • SP4 Erineo M. Mendez, Poteet, TX
    • SP4 Carl S. Mercer, Belcross, NC
    • SP4 Dennis M. Spahn, Altoona, PA
    • PFC Richard C. Jacobs, Kahului, HI
    • PFC James W. Pawlak, Detroit, MI

  • C Company:
    • PFC Ronald Giroux, Deerfield, MA

  • D Company:
    • 1SG Joseph M. Moore, Elba, AL
    • SP4 Stephen Finney, Lynchburg, VA
    • PFC Otto W. Baumann, Spotswood, NJ
    • PFC Daniel M. Mobley, Toledo, OH

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