thedrifter
07-22-07, 07:56 AM
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Reunion helps Marines 'put the missing pieces back'
Members of Company D remember friends who died in Vietnam War
By Patrick Wilson
JOURNAL REPORTER
The Marines in Company D sat around telling jokes and laughing to relieve the stress while they were serving in the Vietnam War.
Forty-one years later, they do the same thing because their experiences still seem as if they happened yesterday.
Twenty-seven members of D Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, and their families, gathered in Winston-Salem this weekend for a reunion. It was the fourth company reunion and the first on the East Coast. They met yesterday to reminisce and share meals at American Legion post 55 on Miller Street.
What they talk about most was an ambush that began on Sept. 16, 1966, and lasted about three days. At least 11 Marines from their company were killed. “These reunions are special to us. When we come together, a lot of times, we can put the missing pieces back together,” said James Barkley of Winston-Salem. “I was told by my psychiatrist at the VA that it was good for us to come together.”
Barkley was injured twice in Vietnam, by shrapnel in his right arm and a sniper’s bullet on the back of his head. His memories, however, are the injuries he wants to talk about.
“When you keep something a secret, it bothers you. But when you get it out, it’s out,” he said.
Wayne Reid of King and Barkley helped coordinate the reunion. Reid has made a scrapbook of his time in Vietnam that includes an article by The Associated Press about the ambush that was published in the Winston-Salem Journal.
Company D was leading another company in part of a larger mission to find enemy soldiers and kill them.
They were fired upon as they walked down a jungle path.
“Somebody said, ‘I’m hit,’ and then basically all hell broke loose,” Reid said.
Five or six Marines were killed immediately. More than 100 others in the company had to leave the bodies for three days while they dug in, surrounded.
They waited on their elusive enemy through sniper fire and artillery attacks. When they thought it was safe to retrieve the bodies of their dead, another Marine was killed in another round of gunfire. A helicopter coming for the wounded was shot down.
“During the night, you could hear them talking. We’d throw grenades in that direction, and the talking would stop,” Reid said. “And they were throwing grenades at us.”
When it was over and the Marines were counting bodies, Barkley and Reid, both 21 at the time, learned that their best friends were dead.
Barkley’s friend was Douglas Frank Quinn of Eureka, Calif.
“He was a guy that I depended on to always have my back,” Barkley said.
Reid’s close friend was Wilbur Dean Rainwater of East Point, Ga.
“I never had any desire to kill anyone, but after he got killed, I could have lined them all up and shot them all,” Reid said.
Two pages in his scrapbook have photos and articles about Rainwater.
Reid was nervous before the company’s first reunion, held in 2000 in Whitewater, Colo. He hadn’t seen his fellow Marines in 34 years.
“But once I got there, it was just like those 34 years weren’t there. We just started conversations that we were having when we left.”
Some Marines in Winston-Salem this weekend saw men they hadn’t seen since 1966.
One of the reunion newcomers was Wesley V. Halbakken of Rothsay, Minn. He was in an AP photo that accompanied the story about the ambush.
Halbakken made contact with his friend Elliott Joyner of Barnwell, S.C., in the past few years, and they talk by phone. But he hadn’t talked to Barkley until six weeks ago.
“When we all started talking, it brings back a lot of memories that we had forgotten,” he said.
The reunion concluded with dinner and a ceremony to honor prisoners of war and those who are missing. The Marines of Company D, however, did not need much of an itinerary or fanfare for their reunion.
They mostly just sat around and talked. Memories from 41 years ago are still healing.
■ Patrick Wilson can be reached at 727-7286 or at
pwilson@wsjournal.com.
Ellie
Reunion helps Marines 'put the missing pieces back'
Members of Company D remember friends who died in Vietnam War
By Patrick Wilson
JOURNAL REPORTER
The Marines in Company D sat around telling jokes and laughing to relieve the stress while they were serving in the Vietnam War.
Forty-one years later, they do the same thing because their experiences still seem as if they happened yesterday.
Twenty-seven members of D Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, and their families, gathered in Winston-Salem this weekend for a reunion. It was the fourth company reunion and the first on the East Coast. They met yesterday to reminisce and share meals at American Legion post 55 on Miller Street.
What they talk about most was an ambush that began on Sept. 16, 1966, and lasted about three days. At least 11 Marines from their company were killed. “These reunions are special to us. When we come together, a lot of times, we can put the missing pieces back together,” said James Barkley of Winston-Salem. “I was told by my psychiatrist at the VA that it was good for us to come together.”
Barkley was injured twice in Vietnam, by shrapnel in his right arm and a sniper’s bullet on the back of his head. His memories, however, are the injuries he wants to talk about.
“When you keep something a secret, it bothers you. But when you get it out, it’s out,” he said.
Wayne Reid of King and Barkley helped coordinate the reunion. Reid has made a scrapbook of his time in Vietnam that includes an article by The Associated Press about the ambush that was published in the Winston-Salem Journal.
Company D was leading another company in part of a larger mission to find enemy soldiers and kill them.
They were fired upon as they walked down a jungle path.
“Somebody said, ‘I’m hit,’ and then basically all hell broke loose,” Reid said.
Five or six Marines were killed immediately. More than 100 others in the company had to leave the bodies for three days while they dug in, surrounded.
They waited on their elusive enemy through sniper fire and artillery attacks. When they thought it was safe to retrieve the bodies of their dead, another Marine was killed in another round of gunfire. A helicopter coming for the wounded was shot down.
“During the night, you could hear them talking. We’d throw grenades in that direction, and the talking would stop,” Reid said. “And they were throwing grenades at us.”
When it was over and the Marines were counting bodies, Barkley and Reid, both 21 at the time, learned that their best friends were dead.
Barkley’s friend was Douglas Frank Quinn of Eureka, Calif.
“He was a guy that I depended on to always have my back,” Barkley said.
Reid’s close friend was Wilbur Dean Rainwater of East Point, Ga.
“I never had any desire to kill anyone, but after he got killed, I could have lined them all up and shot them all,” Reid said.
Two pages in his scrapbook have photos and articles about Rainwater.
Reid was nervous before the company’s first reunion, held in 2000 in Whitewater, Colo. He hadn’t seen his fellow Marines in 34 years.
“But once I got there, it was just like those 34 years weren’t there. We just started conversations that we were having when we left.”
Some Marines in Winston-Salem this weekend saw men they hadn’t seen since 1966.
One of the reunion newcomers was Wesley V. Halbakken of Rothsay, Minn. He was in an AP photo that accompanied the story about the ambush.
Halbakken made contact with his friend Elliott Joyner of Barnwell, S.C., in the past few years, and they talk by phone. But he hadn’t talked to Barkley until six weeks ago.
“When we all started talking, it brings back a lot of memories that we had forgotten,” he said.
The reunion concluded with dinner and a ceremony to honor prisoners of war and those who are missing. The Marines of Company D, however, did not need much of an itinerary or fanfare for their reunion.
They mostly just sat around and talked. Memories from 41 years ago are still healing.
■ Patrick Wilson can be reached at 727-7286 or at
pwilson@wsjournal.com.
Ellie