VIETNAM DIARY MAR 6, 1970

March 6, 1970 Friday - Everyone is still jumpy from all the enemy activity but at least it has been quiet so far this morning. Cat is going out on patrol to look for the enemy and our next night location. We finally get a chance to rest and clean weapons or what ever else needs attention. Might even get a letter written. Suddenly there was the roar of enemy small arms fire as Cat Platoon was ambushed only 150 meters from us. Cat called in for Range Platoon to reinforce them. We saddled up and moved out to their perimeter and filled in the back half. Their M-60 machine gun barrel was burned out so we took our M-60 up to the front. Our sergeant took 400 rounds of machine gun ammo up to the front and then helped get a wounded man toward the back of the perimeter. When the sergeant turned to go to the front some bullets hit the dirt in front of him and one went through his left forearm. A Cobra gunship was called in for support and at some point when he fired his rockets, Archie caught some shrapnel in his back. That is one of the dangers of close contacts with an enemy force. Fire support from the air or ground artillery may wound or kill us if it is not exactly on target. The NVA tried to make a charge at us to over run our position but were beaten back. Danny and Steve were by a clump of bamboo and taking cover near an anthill. An enemy soldier with a .30 caliber machine gun opened fire toward them and pieces of bamboo and dirt hit Steve, cutting his face in several places. I was on the left flank and a man scrambled by me with out his shirt. I could see a big red welt on his back where he had been shot or hit with shrapnel. He was shook up but doing good otherwise and asked me for some water. I threw my canteen over to him. An enemy machine gun opened up on the right flank and Ware was hit. We were finally able to get everybody out of there. The sergeant said when he turned all he could see was wounded men following him. It was the worst we have had so far. The medevacs came and took all the wounded to Tay Ninh. I didn't know how bad it had been until after the firefight and heard Range had 3 wounded and 1 killed. Cat had about 15 wounded. Some of the wounded will be going home and we won't see them again. We will need replacements soon with so many men gone. The odds of getting out of here alive don't seem very good right now. Enemy contacts are happening almost everyday. Decided when I write letters to Linda to not mention the firefights but to make it sound like we are still in the rear pulling guard duty.

VIETNAM DIARY MARCH 6, 1970

HONOR & COURAGE