HOLYOKE, MA. 9/30/1940 - 8/ 18/1965

CPL. BOUSQUET AND HIS CREW, HIS DRIVER LCPL. SPRADLING, CPL. BOUSQUET AND HIS LOADER PFC CUMMINGS IN CHU LAI, RVN, SPRING 1965

2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 3rd Anti-Tank Battalion. Right front row Sgt. Jose Penalosa, second from left front row is Cpl. Robert Bousquet, KIA, second row, second from the left with sun glasses and wearing helmet, PFC Greg Weaver, KIA, second row fifth from the right is Cpl. Jose 'BJ' Balajadia, behind and to the right is PFC Aaron Western, KIA, the Marine with the white bandana standing in back is Cpl. Isaiah Nelson.  This photograph was taken at Chu Lai, Spring of 1965, while the unit was attached to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.

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CPL.  ROBERT G. "FRENCHY"  BOUSQUET  MEMORIAL In late August of 1965 the MARINE CORPS fought America's first significant battle of the Vietnam War.    Acting on intelligence, which indicated that a major attack against their recently constructed airstrip at Chu Lai was imminent, a regimental sized Marine attack force instead beat the enemy to the punch.   During Operation Starlite, which took place on the Vung Tau Peninsula just South of Chu Lai, the Marines killed at least half of the 2.000 hard core Viet Cong troops that opposed them.  Fifty Marines died and nearly two hundred  were wounded over the three days of fighting and one of those who was killed in action was Cpl.  Robert "Frenchy"  Bousquet of Holyoke,  Massachusetts.   An Ontos Commander with the 2nd Plt., Bravo Company, 3rd AT Bn., who had been a member of the platoon for two years, Bousquet was possibly the first Ontosman to die in combat in Vietnam.  If not, he was most  certainly the first to die in a major battle.   According to the sources quoted below, Cpl.  Bousquet's actions in support of 2/4's beleaguered Hotel Company at the time of his death were both heroic and meaningful.   The heavy section of second platoon, which had landed at Chu Lai on May 7, as a component  of BLT 2/4, was given the role of supporting H 2/4 during Starlite.   At dawn On August 18, 1965  Bousquet and the remainder of the second platoon's heavy section went ashore with 3/3 and then drove inland to join up with Hotel Company,  which had earlier been heli-lifted to a position very near the enemy's regimental headquarters.  With tanks and Ontos now in support, Hotel proceeded to attempt to clear and sweep their heavily  defended area of responsibility.  They were, however, stopped in their tracks by an increasing volume of hostile fire.  What took place next is best described by the Ontos platoon  commander at the scene, 1st Lt. William Maher, whose letter to this author reached me on Okinawa shortly after Starlite had been brought to a close. "We started to receive heavy small arms fire and the grunts began to fall like flies.   Eventually, we found ourselves surrounded.   Hotel Company had taken more than 50% Casualties and the tanks that were with us were knocked out.  The gooks had 57mm's and 3.5's that they had taken form the ARVN and they really had a turkey shoot.  If  tanks had moved the way we did, instead of "buttoning up" and sitting there, they would have probably been all right.  The grunts were all around us, though, so I couldn't let our guys button up."   Maher went on to describe how the Ontos brought its awesome fire power to bear upon the enemy.  "B. J.  ( OC Cpl. Jose Balajadia) got on target with his 50's and really let them have it.  We then decided to make a break for the hole B. J. had created in the VC lines.  I sent Frenchy first,  then Nelson  (OC Cpl. Isaiah Nelson), with  B. J.  to cover them."  Cpl.  Bousquet was killed leading the breakout described above. When interviewed by a newsman sometime after the battle, Bill Maher said this about Frenchy's actions that day.   "He would not have been killed if our radio had not been knocked out and I had  been able to direct him.   Because it was out,  Cpl Bousquet had to stand up in his open hatch to see where he was going, exposing himself to enemy fire, which in itself was a brave thing to do.  A bullet penetrated his helmut, but that did not kill him.  Then he got shot right through the chest.  He told the driver that he was going to die, but at that moment spotted  a way out of the rice paddy we were trapped in and directed his driver towards it, remaining exposed himself in order to do so.  After Frenchy's vehicle broke through to safety, the other two Ontos followed and it was only then that Cpl. Bousquet died." According to Bill Maher, his heavy section was credited with 30 VC killed by body count alone during Operation Starlite and their performance was duly noted at the time, as having done a helluva of job, by 2/4's legendary battalion commander,  Lt.  Col.  J. R. "Bull"  Fisher.  The grunts of Hotel Company recognized the important role the Ontos played in turning the tide of the battle and recently one of them,  Jim Mazy, current President of the 2/4 Association, had this to say about them.  "I lost a lot of friends that day, but in my humble opinion, however, if it were not for your (this author led the platoon for two years and had departed for Okinawa three weeks prior to Starlite) well trained troops and their magnificent machines, there would have been many, many more dead heroes to remember.   God bless the ONTOS!" By 1st  Lt. Lynn Terry Cpl.  Bousquet's  Platoon Commander from July 1963 thru July 1965.                            "I have not forgotten you, Frenchy,and I never will"