Excerpts from Viet Nam Diary - AO: I-Corps; Quang Tri Province, Leatherneck Square {bounded by Thôn Húóng Than-Cam Lô-Dong Hà-Gio Linh} ... [diary entry] ... Thursday 24 October 1968: Delta Company is starting to feel like home and were in Leatherneck Square - which means we could be just about anywhere between Quang Tri and the DMZ. We had a skirmish yesterday, killed seven enemy and are hot on the trail of the main body, North-east of Tan Lich. Then they turned and fought back, or maybe they had been there waiting for us all along. From 3rd. Squad, Company C, our only permanently assigned medic, CPL Lonnie Parker, was shot in an ambush, under heavy mortar and sniper fire. He was 21 years of age and never knew what hit him. Medics, radio-men and machine gunners are prime targets. The radio man made obvious by the whip antenna, even when it is secured, and in our squad by the mere size of the man, and the machine gunner both by the ammo belts and the weapon itself. Parker was a good egg, and well miss his wry humor and thorough care. God wouldnt let you die when you were in Parkers hands. I hope our next medic is that good. PFC Larry Martin also from Delta Company, 1/61st., died while pinned down in his position. He was shot and no one could get to him due to the intensity of the enemy fire. He died while fighting and cussing all the way. Our squads day wasnt better, I fired my machine gun almost continuously and was getting low on ammo. The barrel glowed to the most brilliant hue of reddish maroon and was smoking more than Id ever seen it, but no one in our squad was killed today and we took over several enemy bunkers, killing dozens in the process. Toward evening the fighting eased up a bit. The top kick assigned two of us as corpsmen. Two of us cant replace Parker. Im thinking this really sucks ass, or maybe just hind tit, but it really REALLY sucks. It changes me from being a mere secondary high priority target to a top priority target. Then again, I do have a college education, but none of my French teachers nor my philosophy professors ever taught me anything about life-saving skills. I have a fleeting vision of those assholes preaching anti-war slogans to naive and impressionable young kids in air-conditioned offices, drinking their booze and trying to bring the war to the streets of America. Elsewhere, A-Company captured two enemy soldiers alive.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:19:04 +0000
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