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I was
with A/1-11 from about the 6th of January 1971 until the
brigade stood down. The entire time I was with, possibly, Second
Platoon. It was a long time ago so I am not 100% certain. 1LT Steven S. Lungen, a.k.a.
"Bullwinkle" was the
Platoon Leader, acting CO and CO when the company finally stood
down. The only time I was away from the platoon was when
I took a two week "7and 7" in late May. Marc Arneson was killed
about a week before I left.
On 20
March 1971 about 300 meters from QL-9, Jim Ball, our RTO, fell and
broke his ankle. Bullwinkle was in a hurry to back-up another
platoon, because there was a fire-fight going on, so he left Ball
and me behind. After
I hid Jim's PRC-25 radio
I carried him to our AO. After we got there, things were quite, Bullwinkle sent me
for the radio and I went through Indian Territory by myself. I
made it back. I got shot at a couple of times and I shot at something a couple times. I don't know
for sure if I hit anything, but I think I did because the firing
stopped. The truth is I really don't want to know for sure.
LT promised
me a case of Bud and a SS, but I never got them. Any beer would
have tasted good.
On 21
March 1971 our Platoon was on QL-9. I had two WIA, one with a
spinal injury; a 7.62 NATO round between T1-T2 vertebrae. It was
from friendly-fire from a "thunder run" made by an element of 1-77
Armor. We were holding the road open for the RVNs about 3 km.
east of Lang Vei.
On 22
March 1971 the ARVNs started coming through and we got incoming
NVA artillery; 122s and the 175s that the ARVNs left behind in
Laos. I had to call for medical supplies because I ran out. I
spent the day helping the 3rd Platoon, I think; it's been a long
time. I also treated a traumatic triple amputation from 1-61, and anyone
else that needed help. That includes an treating an ARVN sergeant
I pulled from a burning APC after it hit a mine. His crew left him
to burn with broken legs.
When
the ARVNs came through on March 22nd, QL-9 was littered with ARVN
bodies, mostly in pieces from being run over by their own M-113s
and M-48s. I stopped an ARVN medical unit to get them to help me
with their wounded, and get medical supplies from them. The ARVN
major said NO to all of the above and I lost it. LT saved
the ARVN major's life and my life that day.
On 23
March 1971 we were told to RIF east toward Khe Sanh. We hadn't
gone 100 meters and we were mortared by a 60mm. Myself, SSG Bill
Bright, SGT Marc Kalch (spelling) and four others got hit. I got it in
my neck, head and all up and down my right side. I couldn't
get Dust-Off because of bad weather and ended up loading my
wounded with the rest of the platoon on some of 1-61's tanks. I
said no to the offer of a M-113. LT agreed and we were sitting on
a tank with a pucker factor of 0%. We went to 1-61's Battalion Aid
Station.
Dust-Off flew in. I stayed back despite LT wanting me MEDEVACed.
We were down to about 19 bodies, besides it didn't hurt "Much" to
take a long quiet walk. That is about 96 hours of my life that
will never go away. |
