Charlie Wallace

August 18, 2012

Chuck was born July 29th, 1946 to Robert G. Wallace and  Bonnie Faye Dryden Wallace in Wichita, Kansas. He joined the Marine Corps in May 1966 and left the service in March 1969 after serv­ing as a Corporal commanding an artillery unit in Vietnam. After the service Chuck started a family. His family eventually grew to include 8 children. He worked for many years as a truck driver for TWT. During those years he met Joetta Dukek. In his own words, "The years with Joetta have been the happiest of my life". In 2008, Chuck retired from trucking and developed a passion for following the stock market

Chuck loved the outdoors. A wizard, at barbeque, he liked to enter­tain friends and family in the backyard oasis he built with Joetta. Sailing was another passion. For several years Chuck owned a Catalina 25 sailboat. He sailed on the Columbia River and, one o/his favorite spots, Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho. A/ter he sold the Catalina, he and Joetta enjoyed a day sailor and started camp­ing in their motor home.

Chuck did everything in his power both medically and spiritually to stay with his loved ones. He was cheerful and hopeful throughout his illness. He passed away at home on August 18, 2012.

In the tradition of his brother Marines, Chuck was a GOOD man. He will be missed by many. Corporal Wallace will be interred at Willamette National Cemetery with full military honors.

Memories of Chuck

In 2010, my wife Karia and I had the pleasure of accompanying Chuck and Joetta to a reunion of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment in Washington D.C. Chuck served with 3/3 in 1967 in Vietnam. He was attached to the mortar section at Camp Carroll Combat Base.

Camp Carroll was located on a lonely plateau a short distance south of the Demilitarized Zone. It was shadowed by Dong Ha Mountain. Daily, the North Vietnamese Army fired multiple rockets and arterially rounds into Camp Carroll from this mountain.

There were no cities or towns. No friendly villages. Everything beyond the concertina wire was a "free fire zone".

All too often, "INCOMMING" rounds rained down on Camp Carroll by the dozens. Chuck's only hope of survival was "get down and stay down" - until a brief lull occurred. Then it was "get to his mortar and be ready to return fire".

When it rained. Camp Carroll turned into a mud pit. When it was dry, it was hot and dusty. The boom from "8 inch", 175's, and 155's outgoing arterially rounds vibrated through the base, at all hours of day and night.

His living quarters, a canvass tent on a plywood base, was surrounded by a five foot sandbag wall. This was to protect him from rocket and arterially shrapnel. When enemy rounds came screaming in at night he had to scramble in the blackness to a deep trench bordering his tent or work his way between the blasts to his mortar pit.

The cooks did their best to provide hot rehydrated food, when they were operational. But Chuck like most Marines mainly sustained himself on WWII and Korean War era C-rations.

Work hours don't exist in combat. Chuck did his job during the day and at night would find himself either guarding the perimeter of the base; being ready to act as part of a reactionary force; or most often rushing to his mortar pit for an emergency fire support mission. Weekends and regular days off don't exist either. He received six days R&R sometime towards the middle of his tour. This was Chuck's home and his life for 13 months.

At the end of his tour he returned home quietly. Chuck got on with his life. He raised a family. In 2000 he married Joetta. It was obvious they shared a special relationship. Chuck didn't ever speak much about his time in Vietnam. But, at that reunion in Washington D.C., Chuck was as content as I'd ever seen him.

(Mel Clements, husband to Joetta's cousin)

Charlie Passed away following a valiant battle with Cancer on Saturday, August 18, 2012.

August 25, 2012 - From the "Morning News" (www.dnews.com) obituaries.

Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2012 1:00 am | Updated: 11:53 pm, Fri Aug 24, 2012.

Chuck Wallace, formerly of Moscow

Chuck Wallace, born July 29, 1946 in Wichita, Kan., died Aug. 18, 2012, in Vancouver, Wash.

He grew up in Moscow, Idaho, then joined the Marine Corps in 1966 to 1969. He loved to sail his Catalina on Lake Pend Oreille.

He did everything in his power to battle cancer. He will be missed.