Joan Cox, daughter of CM1 Milford Tognazzini, presented long delayed awards in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Seabee Memorial, just outside the gates of Arlington National Cemetery.

RADM M. Johnson, chief of Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, officiated. "We acknowledge and hope in some small way to repay a debt fellow Seabees who were injured in the line duty during the Vietnam War." In the early morning hours of August 7, 1969, an Army mortar platoon at Landing Zone Nancy, in Quang Tri Province, was firing in support of a security patrol under attack just outside the wire. Sparks from a mortar tube ignited ammunition stores. Seven Seabees from NMCB 11 raced through the darkness in a water truck. They fought the conflagration and prevented it from spreading." Amid the chaos of flames and exploding ordnance, CM1 Milford Tognazzini ws killed by shrapnel from an exploding armored personnel carrier, and several of his fellow Seabees were wounded.

The Army put Tognazzini in for the Soldier Medal, which he received posthumously. MCB 11 was decommissioned soon after, and records were mislaid. Through Joan Cox's efforts and the help of her Congress member, Rep. Lois Capps, (CA) - her father was awarded the Purple Heart along with Dutch Van Tassell, Peter Poillon and James Benge. The search still goes on for three MCB 11 members who also were present at LZ Nancy that night.

Joan is looking to contact the following three members present at LZ that night:
John T. Brown, Gerald L. Fitzsimmons and Roy Adams. If anyone knows where she can contact them, please email her at:
cox54tog57@thegrid.net

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