lest we forget

GONZALES, ELIGIO RICE

Rank / Branch:

SPECIALIST FOURTH CLASS, U.S. ARMY

Date Of Birth:

1947-04-30

Country Of Loss:

SOUTH VIETNAM

Status:

HOSTILE, MULTIPLE FRAGMENT WOUNDS

Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:

GROUND

Other:

NOT MARRIED

Unit:

25th INFANTRY DIVISION

Date Of Loss:

1968-06-06

Loss Coordinates:

BINH DUONG

Catagory:

BODY RETURNED

Awards & Decorations:

SEE BIO

VETERAN HAGI0GRAPHY

GONZALES, ELIGIO RICE, JR., SPECIALIST FOURTH CLASS, U.S. ARMY, MARFA, PRESIDIO COUNTY, TEXAS

AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

COMBAT INFANTRYMANS BADGE, BRONZE STAR, ARMY COMMENDATIONS MEDAL, PURPLE HEART, GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL, NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL, VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL, VIETNAM MILITARY MERIT MEDAL, VIETNAM CROSS OF GALLANTRY WITH PALM, VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL

BIOGRAPHY

Eligio Rice "Baby" Gonzales, Born April 30, 1947 in Marfa, Texas, attended the Blackwell School and Marfa High School. He was active in football, basketball, baseball, track, FFA and Dancing.
After graduation 1967, he was drafted ten days later into the Army, leaving his home, his family and his fiancée'. He was only able to return home for one time for 31 days.
His mother remembers noticing that from time to time he would stand at the back door of the kitchen and look out towards the yard, the street and the neighborhood. She wonders if he was thinking, perhaps, that it would be the last time to look out and see his yard, his neighborhood. How hard it must have been for him.
He never told his mother he was leaving for Vietnam. He kept a journal that begins with the day he left for service. He began his tour in Vietnam on November 16, 1967. He was assigned to A Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division as an infantryman. He was killed in hostile action against the NVA on June 6, 1968. He suffered multiple fragment wounds. He was one of seven men from his company killed that day.
Specialist Gonzales was laid to rest with full military honors in the Catholic Cemetery in his hometown of Marfa, Texas with full military honors.
What a coincidence that on November 12, 1967, he left home for Vietnam, and exactly 27 years to the date the Permian Basin Vietnam Veterans' memorial is being dedicated to honor him and all the other young men who left their homes their families, their fiancés, their backyards, and their neighborhoods.