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Sparrowhawk
11-26-02, 07:23 AM
There are things in life we never forget.

Walking by the bodies of twelve Marines KIA early on the morning of the 26th.

Unable to fire at the enemy when we needed a medevac chopper to come in because the M-16 were malfunctioning, the M-60 finally giving out. I melted one barrel and the other malfunctioned because of the dirt and grim we were in, I cleaned the gun as best I could but the gun just refused to fire anymore.

The sad faces of Foxtrot Marines the same ones that had come in company force to rescue us just a few days before, were now grim with the weight of their heavy lost on their shoulders.

Lima Company Marines who had been fired on by Charlie only to move out of the area as Lima moved in and accidentally engaged Foxtrot Co, and lost some men due to friendly fire.

We never realized that we were fighting such a well trained military force. An enemy that was determined to have us pay a price in battle.

The same tactic that had worked on our Company on November 21 that led our Company away from us worked on a Lt in one of Foxtrot's platoons and they were sucked into an "L" shaped ambush, where they were met by a hail of bullets on the other side of a small hill and we couldn’t get to them. We got to the top of the hill two, three times only to be driven back down by a barrage of incoming fire.

Without an M-60 I felt useless, only my .45 pistol, once those rounds were fired, I remember Welsh and I pitching grenades to get a sniper in a tree, we pulled the pin, allowed the spoon to fly off then tried to time it, before we threw the grenade, until we finally got him.

Memories so long ago, yet so very fresh in my mind. The mud, and the rain, the coldness and the pain. How we all stuck together, those of us that remained, there was never a question of returning fire, only how much ammo we had. We huddled around a Marine who's weapon was firing, and cleaned the ammo we could in hopes that it woudl fire.

Having put together these pages this past few weeks has been very draining, deep thoughts never shared before have crossed my mind often.

At times I didn't want to post, but your visits here, some at mid-night East Coast time, coming here to see what had happened kept me going.

Because we all deserved answers to our questions and we all share a need to share those memories with someone that understands, thank you all for being here these few days.

Thanks for allowing me to share these memories with you.

It seemed like only yesterday we started this journey, now we're almost half way through our tour of duty. Soon we can began our countdown and we become short timers and the seasoned grunt in the field, simply because everyone else is gone.

SF

Sparrowhawk
11-26-02, 07:53 AM
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Sparrowhawk
11-26-02, 08:24 AM
At night we dug into the sides of these graves for cover in case we got assaulted and for the warmth.

In the morning we joked about counting the dead body in the grave we had slept next to, as a confirmed kill.



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MillRatUSMC
11-26-02, 09:41 PM
http://grunt.space.swri.edu/ptymtn.htm
The url above is titled "A Party on a Mountain" by Micheal Rodriques.

35 years ago...
Your memories are in November,mine are in October.
I think the day we got ambushed in the Hai Lang National Forest was the 17th of October.
We were two companies in column Golf and Hotel.
We had the point.
They let us through and open up on the rear platoon of Hotel Co 2nd Bn 1st Marines.
I was then Platoon Sergeant of 2nd Platoon Golf Company 2nd Bn 1st Marines.
We were located by a cemetery near Quan Tri.
While Hotel and Echo were close to Khe Sanh
I carried one of these Marines,Perez.
We carried his body to the medvac area that we had cleared.
We were only able to land one chopter.
We first carried the wounded.
One young Marine died as we were carrying him, I saw his face changing color, as I relate in one of my poems.
When that chopter landed, it became a magnet, drawing fire from several locations.
Sandoval was in Foxtrot 2nd Bn 1st Marines.
Micheal fails to say how Sandoval died.
The Hai Lang National Forest was much like the Ashau Valley.
The NVA had several base camps in this area.
We found one that could have house a battalion.
We found a cave full of shu mines.
Blew them in place.
When they went off, about half of a hill disappeared.
Better that way than find them one at a time.

Things that you NEVER FORGET...thanks for sharing your memories of things that you NEVER FORGET...

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

Alxnoel
11-27-02, 05:41 PM
Being new here not sure how this goes operation prairie walking point lima 1 walked into a nva regiment and turned and walked back out by accident a feeling nothing more running back up a small hill shooting as we run setting up a hasty defense calling for help drawing fire small arms and mortars next fire team up my best friend gets hit help carry him back to where a chopper can't land lower a basket get him in it doc says clark he's lungshot scrapnel we didnt know we ran with him in a poucho to get him help he dies on the way to dong ha in the chopper I relive this almost every day of my life he was my friend my brother and he died trying to help me.