Antonio H. Delacerda Jr. and Danny Czajak

Antonio H. Delacerda, Jr.

born Jan 15, 1948

El Paso, TX

Army, SGT, 11B20

Died Oct 31, 1968

Dinh Tuong Province

Land mine

Panel 40W Row 63

I had a tight, very tight friend in the first platoon called Tony Delacerda. We got in the platoon at the same time and it was he that gave me the nickname, Snoopy. One day I popped up from the track [APC] and he saw me and said, "ah, my Snoop." The name stuck. We fought side by side and shared food and drink. We made it through five campaigns and two offensives. When we were short I told him that when we got down to thirty days that we would go back to base camp, hitch hike if need be, and wait until DEROS time. Tony said, "You got it, my friend!" We had only 34 days left to go in country.

Shit detail

When at the 90th replacement depot (repo depo) you were assigned shit jobs until you were posted to a unit. I got out of mine by feigning stupidity or just plain skylarking. A shit burner was fecal and urine collected in a cut off fifty gallon drum, kerosene and perhaps a little gas added to the foul mixture, and then the mess was ignited and stirred until reduced to ashes. Julia Child it was not. Tony was humping a barrel of this mixture. It was hot and humid and we all sweated profusely. Tony kept wiping his forehead and face from what he thought was sweat. It wasn't. The contents of the barrel were splashing on his head and running down his face. When he knew what it was, he dumped the barrel, started swearing and was throwing up. He was swearing in Spanish.

Last memory

One night we were out; my squad consisted of three of us. Tony was driving the track, Czajak* was the 50 gunner, and I was the squad. I think of that night sometimes when we were going down Highway 15, the moon was out and everything a moonlight glow color and I am cruising with the dead.

J. Driessler, Oct 1999




*CZAJAK , DANIEL JOSEPH JR



PFC - Army - Regular 



19 year old Single, Caucasian, Male



Born on 05/06/49



From SYRACUSE, NEW YORK



His tour of duty began on 03/24/68



Casualty was on 10/04/68



in LONG AN, SOUTH VIETNAM



HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY



GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE 



Body was recovered 



Religion  ROMAN CATHOLIC



B/2/47/9th Infantry Division 



Panel 41W - - Line 4

I remember Czajek quite well and yet do not have any specific
memories of him. The only one I have is when he was making
a tape and sending it to his parents. I was lying in the hootch
when he made it. He told his parents that he would be home
before Christmas which was strange because his DEROS was not
until March or April of the next year. I looked at him and he gave
a look back that put a chill to my blood. He was killed
a few weeks later and was home before Christmas. He knew.
(J. Driessler, Nov 1999)