Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

358 Pacifica Military History
functions were still going on, so Doc Bratton was trying to keep him
alive.
Though the firing was dying off, Lima Company was still beset by
enormous confusion. Staff Sergeant Marvin Bailey, the company gunny,
was yelling for stretcher bearers and Sergeant Vogt was starting to call
casualty information to the battalion CP. The CP said it was trying to lay
on a helicopter for emergency medevac. Then the NVA started shooting
again and all the Marines on one side of the hill returned the fire. There
was an enormous amount of confusion. The battalion commander kept
calling, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I was trying to
get reports from the platoon commanders, but I couldn’t quite make
sense of the confusion, so I couldn’t relate much to the CO.
Suddenly, I realized that we were the only ones shooting. So did a
bunch of other people. I yelled, “Cease fire! Cease fire!” and, pretty
soon, everyone was yelling, “Cease fire! Cease fire!”
As the last rounds were fired, Little John came up to me to report.
There were tears rolling right down his face. I said, “What’s the matter,
John? What’s the matter?” He told me he had been advancing toward
the sound of the original gunfire, his radioman in tow, when an NVA
soldier had jumped right up in front of him and shot the radio-man.
Little John had had a clear shot at the NVA, but his rifle had jammed.
He still was so angry that tears were rolling uncontrollably out of his
eyes.
The helicopters started coming in for the casualties, who were being
staged beside the big burned-out area on top of the hill. The litter teams
Gunny Bailey had organized were really sweating. It takes six or seven
men to lift a makeshift poncho litter. We got the two serious WIAs on
the first helo and Cochran and Francis waited for the second. Two other
Marines who were lightly wounded opted to stay with the company.
I looked up briefly from a conversation with a platoon commander
and spotted the 2/9 CO just as he was walking up. He must have come
out on one of the medevac helos. “Hey, Captain,” he said as he arrived
at my side, “what’s going on?” I tried to explain what I knew, which
apparently satisfied him because, after hearing me out, he ordered, “Okay,
I want you to continue on in this general direction.” I acknowledged the
order and he left the hill aboard the second helo.