Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

198 Pacifica Military History
Lance Corporal CHUCK BENNETT
India Company, 3/26, 1st Platoon
The NVA kept firing at us. They’d fire and then they’d move and fire
again. It was sporadic fire. They were probing, trying to find out what
we had.
There were fast movers coming in, dropping bombs near us. They
had to give us cover so we could move out of there. They were dropping
right on top of us, close in. They were shaking the ground real bad.
Staff Sergeant RUSS ARMSTRONG
India Company, 3/26—1st Platoon Commander
The 2nd Platoon managed to recover the Marine from the bomb crater.
When they got to him, he was dead.
1st Lieutenant BOB STIMSON
India Company, 3/26—Executive Officer
It suddenly quieted down. I think they left because they found out what
they wanted to find out.
We had to move the wounded to an LZ [landing zone] about 100
meters from where we had been engaged. They were all serious enough
to have to be carried. An H-34 came in and picked them all up, but they
didn’t take the two dead Marines.
*
The medevac took place at 1320, 90 minutes after the first shots were
fired and at least an hour after medevacs were requested. At 1325, the
AO directed an additional fixed-wing strike. The pilots claimed four
con-firmed NVA deaths. At 1400, as India Company was moving back
toward the battalion main body, the AO sighted a squad of NVA about
400 meters northwest of the original point of contact. He called for an
artillery fire mission. The guns were fired, but the AO was unable to
determine the result. At about the same time and several hundred meters
to the southwest of the original point of contact, the AO located a new
foot trail and, nearby, “many new bunkers.”
Although 1/9 had reported that there had been no contacts around
The Churchyard, it was well known that many NVA were living in the
area. India Company’s contact and the AO’s sightings were not deemed
signifi-cant. It was inevitable, given the number of NVA in the area, that
Marines would run into them from time to time.