TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

JD Carter, Jr.
Extracts from The Hill Fights and other documents:
...While Lieutenant King and his men coped with
their situation on the south side of Hill 861, the
other two platoons of Company B on the northern
side of the hill had an even more trying ordeal.
First Platoon, led by Second Lieutenant James D.
Carter Jr., and 3d Platoon, led by Staff Sergeant
Reyes, began their sweep at around 0530, moving
uphill in the direction of Hill 861. It was not long
before the nature of the terrain separated the two
units by a distance of a few hundred meters. Soon,
a Marine near the rear of the 1st Platoon column,
in 3d Squad, passed word up the column that he
had spotted ive enemy soldiers, one of them being
carried on a stretcher. Lieutenant Carter ordered
the platoon to halt, as the NVA soldiers had not yet
noticed the Marines and were approaching. At a
range of about 50 meters, one of the enemy
soldiers spotted a Marine and began iring. First
Platoon returned ire, and then eight or nine men
moved forward to investigate. They found two
dead NVA soldiers; however, another enemy
soldier who was not yet dead threw a grenade,
killing Corporal James G. Pomerleau, the leader of
1st Squad.
About this time in the morning, Captain Sayers
contacted Lieutenant Carter and Staff Sergeant
Reyes and ordered a change of mission. Because of
the NVA contact made by Lieutenant King’s 2d
Platoon on Hill 861, Sayers thought he had an
opportunity to strike the enemy from two opposite
directions. He ordered 1st and 3d Platoons to
abandon their sweep of the cave complex and
instead advance southeast directly toward the
James D. Carter, Jr.
summit of Hill 861. After advancing some 300
meters from the site of its last contact, 1st Platoon
was crossing an open area, when they received
intense machinegun and small arms ire from the
right lank. As Marines dove for cover and
attempted to return ire, the heroism of one man,
Lance Corporal Dana C. Darnell, stood out. Darnell
was an ammunition carrier for the 60mm mortar
section. The gunner for Darnell’s section was
knocked unconscious before he could set up the
mortar. Without time to set it up properly, Darnell
placed the base of the tube in a helmet between his
legs and steadied it with his bare hands. As the
rounds quickly heated the tube, another Marine
urinated on it so that Darnell would not burn his
hands. Darnell expended all his ammunition, but
the other mortarmen in the column could not
bring their rounds to him due to the heavy ire and
lack of cover. Darnell, therefore, went to them. At
least three times, Darnell ran across open terrain
under intense enemy ire to gather mortar rounds
and bring them back to his tube so that he could
ire them.
More men were wounded or killed when Lieutenant
Carter ordered the Marines to move, two at a time,
out of the open area to cover. Darnell dragged two
wounded comrades to safety until an enemy
mortar round blew dirt and gravel into his eyes,
temporarily blinding him. Instead of allowing
himself to be evacuated, he used precious drinking
water from his canteen to cleanse his eyes, and
within an hour was back assisting the wounded.
For these actions, Darnell was posthumously
awarded the Navy Cross, as he would be killed in
action two days later.
At the same time that 1st Platoon was caught in the
open and Lance Corporal Darnell was responding
M‐22