Frank James Montez
Corporal
PERSONAL DATA
Home of Record: Salinas, California
Date of birth: Wednesday, 01/18/1950
MILITARY DATA
Service: Marine Corps (Regular)
Grade at loss: E4
Rank: Corporal
ID No: 549788812
MOS: 0311 Rifleman
LenSvc: Between 2 and 3 years
Unit: A CO, 1ST RECON BN, 1ST MARDIV
CASUALTY DATA
Start Tour: Tuesday, 01/30/1968
Cas Date: Saturday, 09/20/1969
Age at Loss: 19
Remains: Body Recovered
Location: Quang Nam, South Vietnam
Type: Hostile, Died
Reason: Gun, Small Arms Fire - Ground Casualty
ON THE WALL Panel 18W Line 117
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A Note from The Virtual WallThe 1st Recon Battalion Command Chronology for September 1969 contains the orders for and post-patrol report from A Company's "PARALLEL BARS" team. The patrol was to be inserted on 19 September and extracted three days later on the 22nd. The schedule slipped a day and PARALLEL BARS, consisting of eight men, was inserted at noon on 20 Sep 1969.
At 1630 the patrol smelled cooking and heard voices and the sounds of domestic fowl from a knoll. The team leader, Corporal Frank Montez, and three men moved toward the noise while the other members began to encircle the knoll. Montez' group was fired upon by a single NVA/VC and returned fire, killing the enemy soldier. Two other NVA/VC then recovered the dead soldier and withdrew. The other group saw several enemy soldiers approaching from the south and took them under fire. Noticing other enemy troops to the east, PARALLEL BARS regrouped and started moving out. However, they took fire from the intended direction of movement and on the advice of an aerial observer reversed direction.
By this time it was apparent they were surrounded and the team went into a 360-degree defense while calling for extraction. The aerial observer took the enemy under fire with rockets, but shrapnel also hit two team members. The extraction helo added to the close-in fighting with its machine guns before successfully extracting the team at 2030H. Corporal Montez had been killed in the action and three others wounded - Hospital Corpsman Viento twice (once by enemy and once by friendly fire), Pfc Head and Pfc Goldmeyer once each.
HM3 Viento and Pfc Head recovered from their injuries, but Pfc Charles Goldmeyer died five days later.
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