Roland Edward Rush
Private First Class
C CO, 2ND BN, 35TH INFANTRY, 25TH INF DIV, USARV
Army of the United States
Kensington, Georgia
August 14, 1945 to May 20, 1967
ROLAND E RUSH is on the Wall at Panel 20E, Line 67

slvrstar2.gif  
 
cib.gif
 
phndvsvc.gif
 
Roland E Rush
usarv.gif 25idsm.gif ARGT-35THINFANTRY.png

 

My wife is a first cousin to Roland and they grew up living next door to each other. Please post his photo and obituary.

-- George Wilson, December 5, 2012

On 19-20 May 1967 Companies A and C, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, combined with C Troop 3/4th Cav, were in action at the village of Vinh Hien, about 3 miles northwest of Duc Pho in Quang Ngai Province. The two day battle saw the 'Cacti' claim 89 Viet Cong killed in action and a major Viet Cong complex destroyed, but at the cost of ten American lives:

The 35th Infantry web site has an extract of the 1967 Operations Report, Lessons Learned which describes the events of the battle. The circumstances of PFC Rush's death within that report are:

"At 0900 hours on the 20th, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, located a VC bunker complex 100 meters west of their night location. An engineer squad from D Company, 65th Engineer Battalion, was airlifted with explosives to the LZ and was carried by an APC to that location. Elements from both C/3-4 Cavalry and A/2-35 provided security while the engineers worked on the destruction of the Viet Cong camp and its bunker complex."

At 1221H, this work party came under attack by the enemy. Firing RPG-2's, the enemy hit one of the APC's, killing the track commander and driver. The APC was destroyed. In reinforcing the engineer work party A/2-35 (-) and C/3-4 Cav (-) met heavy enemy resistance, but aggressively fought through it driving them to the southwest.

At 1341, C/2-35 was alerted to move to a pick-up site where they would be extracted for a combat assault southwest of the contact area. The battalion reconnaissance platoon was alerted to move from LZ LIZ to vic BS768463.

At 1410 an airstrike helped to break up enemy concentration.

By 1448, Recon Company of 2-35th Infantry was in position and by 1500 hours, C/2-35 (-) had conducted their Combat Assault into an LZ in the vicinity of grid BS 768443.

While the elements were being moved into position, a FAC spotted twenty armed enemy moving toward the destroyed APC. While the Battalion Commander adjusted the direct fire of the 1O6RR fire from LZ LIZ, CPT Barcena sent a ground element toward the enemy position and APC. When the troops arrived at the deserted APC they killed two more enemy, one of them inside the track, C/2-35 (-) moved from the landing zone to the east linking with A/2-35. By 1540H, C Company was in contact with a well entrenched enemy southwest of A Company. During a stiff village fight that lasted more than an hour C Company killed twenty-six armed enemy.

During the battle described above, PFC Rush was killed as described below:

../dr/RushRE01e.jpg

PFC Rush's death was announced back home in the following:

../dr/RushRE01d.jpg

PFC Rush is buried along with his parents (Carl Edgar Rush (1909 - 1973) and Mary Frances Richardson Rush (1923 - 1988)) in the Tennessee Georgia Memorial Park, Rossville Georgia:

../dr/RushRE01f.jpg

Contact Us © Copyright 1997-2019 www.VirtualWall.org, Ltd ®(TM) Last update 08/15/2019