PFC Lewis Franklin Jenkins, Berryville, VA on www.VirtualWall.org The Virtual Wall® Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

Quan Loi Base Camp was a major 1st Infantry Division forward base in Binh Long Province, RVN, supporting operations in War Zones C & D and along Highway 13. At 1:20 AM on July 11, 1967, the base at Quan Loi was attacked by an unknown size Viet Cong force. The battle began when a perimeter Quad .50 opened fire on enemy movement detected in front of its position. The VC then commenced their attack by placing 60mm, 82mm, and 4.2-inch mortar on the base area complex.

Air support was immediately requested for the besieged base. At 2:01 AM, VC were reported inside the perimeter throwing grenades and satchel charges at the armored personnel carriers and gun positions. Five minutes later, a tank and APC were hit by rocket-propelled grenades, the APC bursting into flames, its crew suffering 100% casualties. The VC penetration continued deep inside the artillery lines, evident the following morning when unexploded satchel charges were discovered strewn about the gun positions.

In addition to the attack on Quan Loi, an adjacent Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) base also came under attack by a large VC force. Illumination and artillery rounds were fired from Quan Loi in support of the beleaguered ARVN unit. As the attack at Quan Loi slackened around 3:00 AM, the attack on the ARVN compound intensified. A ground assault was beaten off by the ARVN, and by 6:10 AM the attacking force broke contact and withdrew to the northwest as U.S. artillery placed fire on suspected VC withdrawal routes.

During the attack, SGT Jewell F. Dodge, a military policeman assigned to the C Company Detachment at Quan Loi, scrambled to his assigned bunker and gave his M16 rifle to a young soldier who in the confusion arrived at the bunker unarmed. SGT Dodge then exposed himself to the incoming mortar rounds to return to his tent to obtain another rifle. He was struck by fragments from an exploding mortar round and lay exposed and severely wounded. He was located in the morning and died in the arms of one of his comrades.

Five other Americans were killed in the raid. They included:

Another 27 U.S. were wounded. One APC was destroyed, and two other Armored Personnel Carriers, a tank, and a truck were damaged. Seven of the VC attackers were killed, and an assortment of enemy weaponry was captured. [Info derived from quanloi.org among other websites.]

Lewis was survived by his mother, Eva Virginia Richards Jenkins (1930-2010), his father, Donald Andrew Jenkins (1916-1977), brothers Donald A. (1946-1960), Thomas Carroll (1954-2008), and Ronald I. Jenkins, and sister Frances V. Jenkins, all of Virginia.

He is buried with parents and brother Donald in Green Hill Cemetery Berryville, Clarke County, Virginia. His father was a WWII veteran.