Saturday April 10th, 2021- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
On Saturday, April 10th, 2021, my family and I left our Air BnB in Morgantown, West Virginia and drove north on Interstate 79 towards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had barely completed our move from Alaska to West Virginia, and had not yet closed on our home purchase. One of the reasons that we made the big move was to put me within driving distance of the National Archives in Washington D.C., as well as dozens of veterans and gravesites of veterans of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. April 10th was one of our first weekends in Morgantown, and what better way to spend it than to take a day trip to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio to locate a few gravesites of soldiers from the 3-12 Infantry who had died in Vietnam.
Our first stop was at the Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Broughton, a suburb just south of Pittsburgh. The weather was beautiful, bright blue skies with broken clouds. By the time we arrived at the cemetery just after noon, the temperature was already in the low 70s. For this newly transplanted Alaskan family, it was much hotter than we were used to.
The cemetery office was open, so after arriving at the cemetery I went in and inquired about the exact location of the final resting place of James Robert Long, an Alpha Company, 3-12 Infantry soldier who was killed in action on March 27th, 1969. The extremely helpful staff was able to print a map and directions to his gravesite within moments. The cemetery was massive, containing tens of thousands of headstones organized into sections with traditional Christian names like “Court of Psalms”, “Nativity” and “Trinity”.
Just a short drive from the cemetery office was Section 11 “Blessed”, which sat parallel to a fenceline separating the cemetery grounds from the busy Curry Hollow Road. Large trees lined the narrow access roads, and small groups of manicured shrubs separated adjoining sections. We parked adjacent to where our newly acquired map indicated his gravesite was, and fanned out to begin our search. The grass, well kept by the cemetery staff, was cool on our sandaled feet. My three youngest children, Samantha (13), Micah (9) and Jebediah (6) had been on these visits before and knew what to look for. One of the kids quickly spotted SP4 Long’s marker and called us over. A flat bronze military marker and a flat shared family marker indicated the final resting place of SP4 James Long. His older brother Donald, who died at the age of 34 in 1977, was buried next to James, and the two shared a marker. At the foot of James’ grave was his bronze military marker.
James’ parents, Donald K. and Dorothy M., who passed away in 2011 and 2012 respectively, were buried in the plot just to the left of their two sons. Their oldest son Kenneth was also buried at Jefferson Memorial, but in another section. We took a moment to clean some tall grass and twigs from the markers and placed a small American flag and penny, which has been our custom on these gravesite visits. After just a moment or two of silent reflection, we re-entered our van and left the cemetery.
Specialist Fourth Class James Robert Long
James Robert Long was born on October 21st, 1948 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The third son of Donald Kenneth Long and Dorothy May Steek, he attended McKeesport High School and graduated in 1966. After graduating high school, he began working at Westinghouse Electric Corporation with his father. In early 1968, he received his draft notice, and was inducted into the United States Army on June 5th, 1968.
After completion of Basic and Advanced Individual Training, he was awarded the Military Occupation Specialty of 11Bravo. Infantryman. After a short leave, he received his orders to Vietnam, arriving on November 2nd, 1968. He was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division upon arrival, and sent to Camp Enari in Pleiku for a short orientation training before being further assigned to Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.
Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment – Central Highlands of Vietnam
In the time between November 1968 and February 1969, Alpha Company and the 3-12 Infantry moved between several areas of operation. During this period, enemy contact and friendly casualties were relatively light. Alpha Company lost one man who drowned while swimming near its patrol base, and another was killed by an NVA sniper in late February.
March 1st, 1969 – LZ Swinger
On March 1st, 1969, Alpha Company participated in the combat assault on LZ Swinger at the north end of the Plei Trap Valley. In an instant, all the semi-quiet months prior were forgotten, and the men of Alpha Company were in a fight for their lives. This was likely James’ first real taste of combat. He and the rest of Alpha Company distinguished themselves that day, wresting control of the hilltop bunker complex from the NVA forces entrenched there.
For the next 11 days, James and the men of Alpha Company endured NVA ambushes and sniper fire along with rocket and mortar attacks. Four more men from Alpha were killed in action, and dozens wounded. James survived unscathed. On March 14th, Alpha Company was lifted to a new area, and helped establish a firebase that was given the name Landing Zone (LZ) Cider. The living conditions at Cider weren’t much better than at Swinger, and occasional incoming mortar, recoilless rifle fire and snipers forced Alpha Company into their bunkers more often than not.
March 27th, 1969
On March 27th, 1969, Alpha Company’s 3rd Platoon, under the command of 1LT Anthony Urrutia, was ordered to perform a recon patrol of an area to the northwest of LZ Cider. A large bunker complex and NVA training camp had been discovered and the Alpha Company commander, Captain Manuel D. Joglar wanted his men to recon the area around it.
The platoon, consisting of 29 men, including a 3-man Forward Observer party, left LZ Cider at 0810 and began moving northwest down a ridgeline and towards a ravine with a small stream running east to west. Moving at a good speed, 3rd Platoon made it to the bottom by 1020 hours, with no signs of NVA. The plan had been to hook east and climb up another ridgeline before looping back to the south and towards the firebase.
Just a few hundred meters into their climb out of the ravine, the pointman spotted a group of four NVA soldiers moving towards them down the ridgeline that 3rd Platoon intended to climb. The pointman engaged, killing two of them. 1LT Uruttia moved his machine gun team forward to pin down the remaining enemy soldiers, and the forward observer team began calling in supporting fire from the 105mm howitzers of B/6-29 FA located on LZ Cider. Before this support could be brought to bear, the jungle above and to the north of 3rd Platoon erupted. Well concealed bunkers and fighting positions contained dozens of NVA soldiers, who unleashed a deadly barrage of accurate machine gun fire, B-40 rockets and mortars. Several Alpha Company men were killed instantly, and 1LT Uruttia gave the order to fall back. Seconds later, he too was struck and killed by NVA bullets.
Somewhere amongst all of this maelstrom, young 20 year old SP4 James Long was struck and killed by enemy fire. The platoon was shattered, and the survivors pulled back, trying to maintain the fighting strength they still had and account for all of their people. Several men, wounded and disarmed, made their way back to the firebase perimeter on their own.
As soon as it was clear that his 3rd Platoon was in real trouble, Captain Joglar gathered up the men of 2nd & 3rd Platoon and scrambled down the hillside to gather up his battered platoon. Wary of another NVA ambush, the main body of Alpha Company didn’t link up with 3rd Platoon until just after 1600 hours. The news was not good. Eight men from Alpha Company were missing in action. The 3rd Platoon survivors reported that at least six of the eight missing men were seen to have been hit badly in the face or chest, and likely all eight were dead.
Alpha Company moves to reinforce
Captain Joglar, needing to at least attempt to recover his men, ordered Alpha to carefully work their way close to the initial contact area. It didn’t take long, and the Alpha men were once again engaged by heavy automatic weapons fire and forced to break contact and withdraw. LTC Richard X. Larkin, the battalion commander, ordered Captain Joglar to gather his men and return to the firebase at LZ Cider. LTC Larkin would order a series of artillery and airstrikes against the NVA positions, and Alpha Company would have to wait on their recovery mission.
The Cost
Of the 29 men on the 3rd Platoon patrol, four were wounded and evacuated and eight killed in action. It would be over a week until the bodies of six of those men could be recovered from the field. One man, SSG Raymond Czerwiec, was never found. He was listed as Missing in Action until April 28th, 1976, when a presumptive finding of death was finally issued. He is now listed as Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered.
SSG Gail Mason Kerns, another of the men who went down in the initial burst of fire that day, holds the most amazing story of all. Knocked unconscious when an NVA bullet smashed into his skull, he awoke days later as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese Army. For the next four years, he would remain in captivity in Cambodia, Laos and finally, at the Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam. He would be released during Operation Homecoming in 1973, and lived out his life peacefully in his native West Virginia until his passing on May 10th, 2024.
SP4 James Long had been in Vietnam for 145 days when he was killed in action on March 27th, 1969. His body was eventually recovered and identified in early April, setting the stage for his eventual burial at Jefferson Memorial Park.
