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NAVIGATION
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"Well,
it got dark. I mean totally dark. Then late at night the rains began.
It rained, and rained and then it rained some more. That nice protected
sunken area filled with water and soon we were lying in it with just
our shoulders and weapons above water and peeking out over the dike
around us. Firing came from the direction of the LP and word was passed
to let those guys back in to our little pocket of relative safety. The
NVA were probing us and trying to escape more than do a frontal attack.
We could make them out by the light from flares in the sky. We fired on
and hit a lot of them in the rain, but it was impossible to contain
them all. No telling how many made it out. When the sun came up, there
were bodies all over the now semi-flooded rice fields before us. I
can’t remember how many dead were found out there, but it was
considerable..." |
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| "We
saddled up again and headed back toward the treeline to mop it up and
get Kenny’s body out of there. My squad was off to the right of the
area where Kenny had fallen, but we could see him lying there in the
torn up undergrowth. One of the guys finding him had the good sense to
not move him. He tied a rope to his foot and pulled him over from a
safe distance. Good thing he did because a grenade under the body
exploded as he was moved. He’d been booby-trapped. There were virtually
scores of dead NVA around the bunker complex, but no live ones. I still
remember being amazed at the sight of some of the corpses. Just lying
there overnight in that wet, humid atmosphere, the bodies had bloated
beyond belief and some were crawling with little critters already. The
living had all made the break out during the night. Either successfully
or mostly not..." |
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| "Our
Company A had seen and done enough and we were running on empty. We
gathered tons of small arms, ammo, grenades and personal belongings
from the dead and once again regrouped outside the treeline. The order
came from the Colonel to hop on the arriving Hueys and leave the rest
of the cleanup to others. We were flown to the fishnet factory and
stood down. Word reached us later that day that it had been confirmed
that there had been over 600 NVA dug in there! Holy shit! Good thing we
didn’t know that before we went in..." |
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| "A
few days later we were gathered and given a treat from the USO for our
efforts. This skinny little kid with a guitar sang and performed for
us. None of us had ever heard of Hank Williams Jr. I never wanted to do
that again and to this day can see the place. Man, this was shaping up
to be a long, scary year for this boy." |
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Dedicated to those who died that day
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