When Jim Matchin visits the home of his former unit, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, he sees memorials to fallen soldiers from World War II and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Matchin, who served with the unit during the Vietnam War, is now working to honor those from his generation.
Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the U.S. Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion. He was 108.
Content about baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, as well as the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo code talkers and a Native American Marine who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima were among the webpages initially removed.
![Soldiers sit atop an M48 tank. A combined Infantry and Cavalry mission was halted when the North Vietnamese opened up with 75mm recoilless, 50 cal. and AK-47 rifles, hitting one Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) twice, blowing off its tracks, and disabling a tank. The action took place about 2000 meters from Landing Zone Ross, north of Chu Lai. Included were soldiers from B Troop, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment; C Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment; and A and D Squad, 1st Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. The units had been moving 1000 meters West along a road leading through the Que Sanh valley with the objective to take a hill some 500 meters away when a tank hit a 500 pound mine, causing two injured, one seriously. In a subsequent firefight, the NVA managed to disable a second tank as well as an Armored Personnel Carrier, pinning the units down in the cross fire. After three hours of air strikes some hitting as close as 50 meter from the men the order to withdraw was given. A total of 22 NVA were killed. Three tanks and one APC were destroyed and the Americans suffered 5 wounded during the action. [jo;cg]; [PUBLISHED CAPTION: Infantrymen ride tank into action north of Chu Lai. 01/19/1968]](https://www.stripes.com/incoming/rd8eja-ssp09830xn265.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_560/SSP09830Xn265.jpg)
