Corporal Charles Anthony Sanchez US Army Ranger
Charles Anthony Sanchez was born on October 27, 1950 in Las Vegas NM to Phillip and Evangeline Sanchez. He was raised in Mora NM, where his father operated the Mora Insurance Agency, graduating from Mora HS in 1968. He enrolled at NMSU the next fall in the College of Arts and Sciences. He departed school after the fall 1969 semester and entered service in the US Army in the spring of 1970. Following his training he arrived in country on February 16, 1971. Shortly thereafter he volunteered for the US Army Rangers. Rangers in Vietnam were activated, trained and fought in the same geographical areas, a high speed approach to training. Training was a combat mission for volunteers. Volunteers were assigned and not accepted in the various Ranger companies until after a series of patrols by which the volunteer had passed the acid test of a Ranger, combat, and was accepted by his peers. Following peer acceptance, the volunteer was allowed to wear the black beret and red, white and black scroll shoulder sleeve insignia bearing his Ranger company identity. [1]
Once accepted he was assigned to “L” Company, 75th Infantry, then assigned in support of the 101st Airborne. The Ranger companies were composed of small, heavily armed long range reconnaissance teams that patrolled deep in enemy-held territory. Each independent company was attached to a division or separate brigade and acted as the eyes and ears of those units. Rangers collected intelligence, discovered enemy troop locations, surveilled trails and enemy hot spots, directed artillery and air strikes, did bombing damage assessment, performed ambushes, and sniper attacks. [2]
On 13 June Ranger Team Ohio, led by 1LT "Currahee" Grange, (who would later go on to command Delta Force operations in Granada and the 1st ID) made a raid northeast of FSB Shock (Coordinates YD 518056) located in the Thua Thien Province, I Corps, for the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne. The mission was reconnaissance in force looking for base camps, way stations, and cache sites. The team engaged an enemy outpost and a fire fight lasted several hours. The team employed air strikes and aerial rocket artillery on enemy positions and routes of escape, while they continued to use their organic small arms fire power. The Rangers suffered heavy losses of 5 US WIA and 2 US KIA during the contact.[3] Corporal Charles Anthony Sanchez was one of those casualties. His body was recovered and today lies buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery. He was 20 years old at the time of his death in service to his country.