Our Arklahoma Heroes: Late October battle in Tay Ninh Province resulted in death of Tahlequah artillery specialist
Ronnie Courtney was born on August 29, 1947, the son of George and Wilma Courtney, and one of ten children raised in the Tahlequah area of Cherokee County. Four of his brothers also answered the call to serve, one in the Army, two in the Marines, and one in the Navy, making the Courtney household a place where military duty was part of ordinary family life.
He entered the Army on October 19, 1967, and completed basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, before deploying to Vietnam on April 1, 1968. He served as a specialist four with Battery C of the 8th Battalion, 6th Artillery, attached to the 1st Infantry Division, his military occupational specialty listed as field artillery basic.
By late October 1968 he was at Fire Support Base Rita in Tay Ninh Province, a remote position near the Cambodian border established as part of Operation Fishhook to interdict North Vietnamese Army infiltration routes. The base had already endured weeks of mortar and rocket fire, and at least one earlier ground assault had been beaten back by the mix of artillery, infantry, and cavalry units holding the perimeter.
On the night of October 31, Courtney volunteered to man a .50 caliber machine gun alongside Charles Costin. Just after 0300 hours on November 1, a North Vietnamese sapper force struck the northwestern side of the base. The main thrust of the assault came directly in front of that gun position.
An RPG round struck the weapon, mortally wounding both men. Courtney had been firing at the attackers before the blast. The fight continued for hours, with three massed assaults driven back by the defenders. Lieutenant Colonel Charles C. Rogers, the artillery commander, was wounded three times while rallying the men and directing the defense; he would receive the Medal of Honor.
Specialist Four Lester Williams of the same battery threw himself on a grenade that entered a bunker and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Twelve Americans were killed before air support finally forced the enemy to withdraw toward Cambodia.
Courtney was twenty-one. His body was recovered and returned to Cherokee County on November 11, 1968. He was buried at Tahlequah City Cemetery.
At his mother’s home in Tahlequah, First Lieutenant Kenneth Wrede of the U.S. Army Advisor Group from McAlester presented the posthumous Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, and Good Conduct Medal. He had also earned the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
His name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington at Panel 40W, Line 73.
Years later a wreath was presented in his honor to his sister Patsy Ray of Stilwell during a ceremony in Sallisaw.
On the headstone in Tahlequ,ah the inscription notes the Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, and Purple Heart.
In the quiet of the cemetery the marker stands among other local sons who left for the same war and did not come home, a reminder of the night at Fire Support Base Rita when a young man from Cherokee County held his place on the perimeter until the end.
