Proud Americans: Close to the Heart

BY MICHAEL KEATING

In 1969-70 VVA life member Ralph Jones served with the “Proud Americans” of 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery, which fought at what came to be known as the Anonymous Battle on March 26, 1970, Fire Support Base Jay on March 29, and FSB Illingworth on April 1—all part of the 1st Cavalry Division baiting operation at Dog Head. The operation was developed in late 1969 to shake the North Vietnamese Army’s 9th Division’s hold on the Dog Head and to pave the way for a South Vietnamese Army move into Cambodia.

Undermanned, inadequately fortified, and with many troops unused to working together, this little-known baiting operation resulted in 42 Americans killed and 137 wounded.

In 1997 Ralph Jones organized the first Proud Americans reunion. Its premise, he said, was “to allow every Proud American 2nd/32nd F.A. veteran—and any other veteran—to be welcomed home at least once in their lives.” Nearly forty attended the first reunion; now more than three hundred veterans sometimes attend the annual reunions.

In 2008 Jones returned to Vietnam to the site of FSB Illingworth. He dug a small hole and buried a Celtic cross, then dug up some soil and placed it in a bag, which he took home.

In 2010 Jones successfully pushed to have a memorial built in Fort Sill’s Constitution Park to commemorate the sacrifices of the Proud Americans. At the dedication Jones took his bag of soil from FSB Illingworth and scattered it in front of the memorial. Today the memorial is shaded by three trees. One tree remembers the Proud Americans, 2nd/32nd Field Artillery. Another is for the Proud Americans, 2nd/32nd who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. The third commemorates those who fought the battles in the Dog Head Baiting Operation in Vietnam.

For each of the past fourteen years, Jones has driven from his home in Cincinnati to Oklahoma’s Fort Sill to lay a wreath at the Proud Americans Memorial. This year was no exception. Accompanied by Mike Miller of Grand Junction, Colorado, he placed a wreath at the memorial on April 1, the forty-sixth anniversary of the NVA assault on FSB Illingworth. For the second year, they were joined by Knoxville’s Steve Holt, who served with the 1st/77th Artillery at Illingworth.