If you have any questions, additional biographical information, personal remembrances, or photographs you would like to contribute, please contact the 720th MP Battalion History Project Manager via this Email Link.

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They Say, our deaths are not ours, they are yours, they will mean what you make of them. They say, we leave you our deaths, give them some meaning. Archibald MacLeish poet and WWI veteran.

On 3 December 1967, Sunday, CPL George Franklin Antonitis, age 24, of Salisbury, NC, was a member of the Cat Lai Ship and Barge Security Detachment. CPL Antonitis and his patrol partner were assigned to inspect a river barge that had been tampered with the night before.

        While jumping from one barge to another CPL Antonitis lost his footing and fell sixteen feet into the swift running river below. His partner attempted a rescue in the tidal water but was unsuccessful. His body was recovered several days later.

Edited from the Book, Soldiers of The Gauntlet, a personal story of SP/4 Edward J. Palmer, Jr. C Company, 720th MP Battalion & 188th MP Company, 92nd MP Battalion, October 1966 to December 1967, titled “George Antonitis, Friend.”

-- General / Personal ---
Last name: ANTONITIS
First name: GEORGE FRANKLIN
Home of Record (official): SALISBURY
State (official): NC
Date of Birth: Thursday, January 28, 1943
Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian
Marital Status: Married

--- Military ---
Branch: Army
Rank: CPL
Serial Number: 53445253
Component: Selective Service
Pay grade: E4
MOS (Military Occupational Specialty code): 95B40

--- Action ---
Start of Tour: Saturday, June 3, 1967
Date of Casualty: Sunday, December 3, 1967
Age at time of loss: 24
Casualty type: (C3) Non-hostile, died while missing
Reason: Drowned, suffocated (Ground casualty)
Country: South VietNam
Province: Bien Hoa
The Wall: Panel 31E - Row 028

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