Vietnam Battle Memorial Honors Fallen Soldiers

Maj. John Snodgrass led a heartfelt benediction at a ceremony paying tribute to soldiers lost in the Battle of Ben Cui, Vietnam. This event took place at Staff Sgt. Marvin Rex Young’s gravesite in Odessa, Texas.

Reflecting on the ceremony, former Army Staff Sgt. Tom Frame thinks daily about his comrades who died in Vietnam. Each Veterans Day, he and fellow unit members journey to Texas, the home of Staff Sgt. Marvin Rex Young, who was among the 18 casualties at Ben Cui.

The Battle of Ben Cui was a fierce conflict between Frame’s unit and the North Vietnamese army. These trips help Frame reconnect with his brothers in arms. In summer, marking the battle’s 50th anniversary, he arranged a reunion for both soldiers and families. Many of the soldiers had not gathered on August 21, the battle’s date, since 1968.

When asked why he pursued this reunion, Frame replied, “It’s my duty.” Yet, he needs no special day to remember. “Each morning, I look outside… and think about them,” he said, questioning why he survived while others didn’t. This burden also weighs heavily on his family due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“I wake up in the morning and I look outside at a beautiful morning — and I think about them,” Tom Frame expressed as he ponders his past.

Frame’s PTSD primarily manifests as anger. It’s an intense and irrational rage. This affected not just him but also his children, straining relationships and requiring solitude to manage.

Over time, Frame addressed his PTSD with some improvement. Conversations with fellow veterans helped. This past August, his family joined him in Odessa for the reunion. At the Sunrise Memorial Gardens, as the call to arms played, veterans and family remembered their comrades.

On August 21, 1968, Frame’s unit was on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam. Facing a North Vietnamese sniper, one soldier was killed instantly. The battleground was chaotic.

“Remember all of the leaves on the vegetation? It was like it was pouring rain — they were all moving. That was the bullets,” a medic named Gary Young once recalled.

A retreat left 18 men on the battlefield, a haunting memory for Frame. “The thing that will always stick in my mind — was anybody left out there alive?” he asked. The service concluded with a prayer for the 18 men. “I ask when I pray that [God] continues to hold those men and their families,” Frame shared.

After the service, veterans and friends gathered for lunch at a local golf club, sharing memories over desserts. “Thirty, 40 years ago, you probably wouldn’t have gotten anything,” Frame mentioned, referencing the past anger at government and public perceptions. Now, speaking about experiences aids healing.

During the reunion, Pvt. Nick Fasselin recounted Ben Cui as his first day in the field. He saved Frame’s life in a later battle. Pvt. Abe Cardenas was the last to see Rex Young alive. Despite undergoing chemotherapy, Maj. Gen. Andy Anderson attended the service, defying medical advice.

Although Frame continues searching for peace, the reunion offered him some relief. “They are my men,” he stated. Still, the reality of survival haunts him. “I’ll never come to terms with that… not until I’m dead,” he confided.