Looking for the Marines in my Units US Marines Combined Action Platoons (CAC/CAP) Vietnam 1965-1971 Website http://capmarine.com/index.htm Supplemental site http://www.cap-assoc.org/ For the same Purpose 7th Engineer Battalion (Rein) Assn. First Marine Division, FMF Pacific Viet Nam 1965 - 1971 Sign In Website 7th Engineer Battalion (Rein) Website http://www.usmc.org/7th/
Other Comments:
When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, He was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared. "You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this one." And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Nam vet has to be able to run 5 miles through the bush with a full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep his weapons clean and operable. He has to be able to sit in his hole all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow keep his senses alert for danger. He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats, very little rest and he has to have 6 pairs of hands." The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no way." The Lord say's "It's not the hands that are causing me problems.... It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam vet has to have." "That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in front that can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make it".......when he knows he won't. "Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow." "I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can carry a wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a firefight, calm the fears of the latest FNG, and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck." The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?" "You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, recite all his general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War, and still keep his sense of humor." "This Nam vet also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with ambushes from hell, comfort a fallen soldier's family, and then read in his hometown paper how Nam vets are baby killers, psychos, addicts, killers of innocent civilians." The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very ones he fought for." Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and said, "There's a leak...I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model." "That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear." "What's the tear for?" asked the angel. "It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag, for the terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone with it's demons with no one to care or help." "You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear. The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores. "I didn't put it there," he said. (Pause for reflection)........God bless Nam vets
Other Memories In early February 1968 during the TET offensive I was in my first fire fight in Hai Van Pass. We were in a convoy going north to Hue when Charlie initiated an ambush with a command detonated box mine. Seconds after the explosion and resulting small arms fire the word was passed down the convoy for the corpsman to move forward, there were casualties. On the run from the middle of the convoy I came around a bend in the road into the field of fire. I treated 7 casualties that day, 2 KIA (Lcpl Halfman, LCpl Maybury) 5 WIA (SSgt. John Johnson...) The second Marine I treated had received a major portion of the shrapnel to his upper body resulting in many sucking chest wounds. This Marine was in the middle of the road and we were taking heavy small arms and machine-gun fire from the top of the cliff overlooking the road. As I was treating the Marine the majority of the small arms fire was directed toward me as I tried to apply dressings to the many wounds. Realizing that I was highly exposed I covered the Marine with my body as I tried to treat him. As the small arms fire became more intense on my position I knew I need to Di Di Mau (spelling) out of there. The Gunny behind the second vehicle yelled ?Docs in trouble!? and in an instant the fire fight intensified and the Gunny ran from cover to my position noticing that I was struggling in the attempt to get the Marine to cover as he outweighed my 145 pounds by at least 80 pounds. We got him to cover although he died before the MED EVAC arrived. After the fire fight and the area secured we were going back to Danang since the pass was closed. I started to think about the ambush and realized that when the Gunny yelled of my predicament all the Marines engaged in the fire fight had exposed themselves from their positions and proceeded to gain fire superiority by a heavy volume of fire on the enemy positions. This and the Gunny?s action saved my life.
