TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

A Year in the Provinces
In Praise of Former Marines
Early that September of ‘68, Alpha 1/5 departed our
battalion combat base to guard the locals. Things went
downhill for Alpha Company, not immediately‐‐ but soon.
Come dusk they got mauled.
The usual “someone far‐above‐my‐level”
determined that the mauling of Alpha company was
surprising, but not likely an indicator of similar things to
come. Of course it was necessary to get the personnel of
Alpha company back to the battalion base, so a second
company was cautiously ordered to find and link‐up with
Alpha company and bring them back. Chosen for this
cushy stroll, (as I saw it then), was Bravo company of
which I was the XO.
What with fine weather I predicted a pleasant walk
in the park. Of course, hindsight would wonder how
anyone can think the beauty of the weather, given many
dead and wounded, might suggest the ease of the
assignment. Nevertheless, such a state of mind became
one's default view of cause and effect. What looks
pleasant shall become so, right? Otherwise, just focus on
staying alive and accomplishing the mission.
The morning was beautiful and since our mission
seemed easy our spirits were high. After about an hour of
steady and uneventful moving toward Alpha Company, we
came to a stream running across our line of movement. I
wasn’t paying a great deal of attention to anything other
than my footing on the rocks in the stream, when suddenly
the right foot of the Marine directly in front of me jerked
to the left and he plunged forward into the water. I
helped him back to his feet, laughing, – but not for long.
Quickly I felt the bone‐vibrating cacophony of incoming.
Maybe 200 meters away at the end of a flat and open area,
was a berm of two or three feet bordering, as we later
determined, a series of rice paddies backed by the usual
rice‐poor village and some banana palm groves. We were
taking heavy fire from behind that berm. That was a
surprise and a fine walk ruined.
Even deadly surprise in combat isn’t one that stuns,
paralyzes or incapacitates well‐trained, veteran Marines.
The vicious fire coming from the berm meant that we had
to move up and attack their point of attack. Though
counter‐intuitive, hesitation simply lengthens the
engagement and passing minutes multiply causalities. So
we attacked. We had some Marines killed and others
wounded, but we kept attacking until we reached the
berm. We found the enemy had quite intelligently
withdrawn to the village some 100 or so meters back. And
then, for a reason which we could not know, the firing
stopped. As we later guessed, the NVA severed contact
only in order to re‐group for a later and even more vicious
attack on us and our sister company – Alpha. We
evacuated the few killed or wounded, counted noses,
formed our column and moved east to link up with Alpha
Company.
We found Alpha Company defending a relatively
large area with a dazed, defiant air, the result of 36 hours
of constant fighting. Their dearly‐bought success in
beating off what should have annihilated them, or nearly
A‐29