THE WALL OF FACES - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (2024)

JOSEPH PERITO

POSTED ON 11.3.2023

POSTED BY: john fabris

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrance from your brother Ron is moving and reflects his enduring love for you. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

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POSTED ON 5.15.2023

POSTED BY: Dennis Wriston

Sergeant Joseph Perito, Served with the 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, United States Army Vietnam. Montani Semper Liberi !

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POSTED ON 4.21.2021

POSTED BY: Lucy Micik

Dear Sgt Joseph Perito, Thank you for your service as an Infantryman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is the Easter season. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

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POSTED ON 9.2.2020

POSTED BY: Michael Carretero

(2nd Half of 50 Years Since Your Death) They knew each other since grade school and had joined the Army together.) At that point I knew what had happened, I jumped over that tree trunk and ran down the trail looking for Joe and the location where I had set up my ambush. When I got to the area where I thought I had set it up, I didn’t recognize the area. The blast from the Claymores had pretty much cleared the area. As I was looking around, trying to find out where Joe might be, I spotted on the ground one of Joe’s legs from the knee down. The sight of Joe’s leg must have put me in shock, because at that point everything became surreal. Then Joe started mumbling again. He had been blown about 20 to 30 feet on top of a clump of bushes. He was on his back, with his head hanging down where he couldn’t see his legs. When I saw him, I ran back up the hill to tell the rest what had happened to Joe. We called for a Medevac, and I remember, Sgt. Larry ‘Stubby’ Stutts, Sgt. Elijah ‘Rooster’ Porcher, and Sgt. Gary ‘Pickle’ Wolkow coming down to help him. I don’t remember anyone else. We made a stretcher with Joe’s poncho and two sapling trees. When we lifted him up to put him on the stretcher, someone lifted his head up where he saw that his legs were gone!! When he saw that, he started saying “What’s my mother going to say, what’s my mother going to say??” We told him that he was going to be alright and that he was going home!! But he was going into shock!! A re-supply chopper had finally arrived so we put Joe on that bird instead of waiting for a Medevac chopper. Anyway, Joe died in route to the rear. I don’t remember if that is the same bird that Lt. Paul Lazure came out to our Platoon in or if he came in on another chopper. After that I didn’t set up any more Mechanical Ambushes. I think that was handed over to Wes Byrd. I also can’t remember if we set up any operational guidelines for setting up or bringing in our Ambushes after that.

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POSTED ON 9.2.2020

POSTED BY: Michael Carretero

By Mike Carretero: I remember the Joe Perito incident that happened very clearly even after all these years. I was sent to Camp Eagle to learn how to set up a Mechanical Ambush [MA]. It was about a two day class and then I came back out to the field. I don’t think we had been setting up MA’s for awhile until I had come back from the class. Anyway, we had been humping on this redball (a pretty well used trail that didn’t require any clearing) all day. We were supposed to get re-supplied the next day, Sept 2nd, 1970. At some time on Sept. 1st we came to an old LZ [Landing Zone] that had already been cleared for landing. Captain Lampkin, our Company CO, decided that we would break down at that location for the night, since we were supposed to get re-supplied the next day. There was a hugh tree that was blown over that straddled the trail, so that we had to straddle the tree to go up the hill where the choppers would be landing with re-supplies. So I made my bed right next to that tree, right above the trail where we had to straddle the tree to get across it. It was just the beginning of the monsoon season, so I draped my poncho over the tree trunk and slept underneath it next to the tree. Later that day, before it got dark, I went down that trail about 20 to 30 yards to set up my Mechanical Ambush. I don’t remember exactly who it was, it may have been Hiram Trisler that I used to provide security while I set up the ambush. Mind you, this was probably about the third time that I had set up the MA. I set up one Claymore at the trip-wire and another Claymore facing down the trail in case there were other Gooks following behind the first, who tripped the wire. On the morning of Sept. 2nd it had rained for a little while. We didn’t have to get up early to move out because we were already at our location where we were going to get re-supplied. Then all of a sudden, an explosion went off!! Someone yelled “Incoming!” We all hunkered down, waiting for additional mortar rounds or whatever we thought the Gooks were firing at us. Then someone yelled out, “Where’s Joe [Perito]!?!?!.” A few minutes later we heard Joe screaming, “T-bone, I’ve been hit!” “T-bone!!” (T-bone was the nickname that was given to Timothy (Tim) A. Pellicciotti, Joe’s buddy.

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