Operation Buffalo 2 July 1967

[HST]

Today is my day, by all rights I shouldn't have seen the sun come up on this day 44 years ago. I'm getting ready to have a drink or 7 or 8 to the 80 or so Marines from Alpha and Bravo 1/9 who bought it when they got overran and to the Charlie 1/9 Marines I was with when we went in to try to get those that were alive and who ended up getting dead in the trying.

I remember Buffalo like it was yesterday but I'm not telling a war story. I had a watch, a Girrard Perrigoh, a good very expensive watch that I bought when I was dead drunk with 2 Aussi Marines on r&r in Hong Kong. I wore it in the bush and cracked the crystal, it would get filled with water, I'd drain it and it kept on working. On the 2nd we tried to get up up 561 to the marketplace 3 or 4 times, we couldn't get through, we brought more and more WIA's out to the trace. I had an LZ set up on the trace but we couldn't put the WIA's down there, it was exposed, no cover at all, we were getting constant arty and snipers. so we hid them in the treeline and carried them out when we had choppers inbound.

That night we lost half of my team when some stupid 46 driver lit up his landing lights to look over the ground before he sat down. soon after he did a gook snuck in and popped us with an rpg while we were carrying guys to the choppers. They took off left us with wia's on the zone. I was carrying some guy and had left my radio up in the treeline. I went ballistic. I ran back up there and started MFing them, the 1/4 actual came on and I MFed him. I told them I had wounded Marines that they had left in the zone, what were they going to do about them? The 1 ship had WIA's aboard, the 2 turned around and came back. Guy had some balls, the gooks had the range and were hitting the zone, he sat it down it the middle of it all and he didn't lit us up. The crew ciief and door gunner helped us carry guys.

When they left, I figured we were gonners, there were gooks all over the place and we still had a lot of WIA's. I was laying there wondering what time it was. The gun ship was up with a flare ship, spookey 2-1 and nailfile. They were making lot of noise but they couldn't pull their fire in close enought to help us because none of us really knew exactly where us was. You could hear the gooks , they were looking for us but their own arty was keeping them down. I figured if dawn was close we might make it. I couldn't make out the time from the flare light so I pulled a poncho over my head and tried to see the time with my lighter. It read 1:30. I knew there was no way they would stay blind until dawn. I was ready to check out, no running, there were too many wia's to even think about moving, just laying there, loaded, unlocked and ready to do it for the last time, then I saw this red light, I crawled up to where 561 crossed the trace and I could look down to Goi Lin. It was the sun. the watch was broke.

I felt something then that was magical or mysitical or religious, I don't know but it convinced me that we're not alone, there is a force out there, sky 6 or the supreme architect of the universe or God oar all of the above, those rays hit me like a punch to the mind or the soul. That experience changed my life, I can relive it today, it filled me with something, a feeling. It's the reason, I'm not bitter, not emotionally destroyed by the war. I can remember it without pain because I believe that there is something beyond here, I've seen it, I've felt its warmth and if we live right and die right we will be there with those guys who walked the path before us.

Happy 4th of July.

[DocGreek]

.....My very best to you and those Marines who still survive. I'm listening to "Ventura Highway" by America. I walked and camped along Hwy 9 and Hwy 1 in Calif. when I was released from Balboa USNH in 69'.
I've carried the burden of my memories for a long dam time. I pray for the souls of the young Marines I served with who were wounded and KIA.......every day.
SEMPER FI......Doc Greek......

[Mongoose]

Tony you brought a wetness to my face. I know that deep feeling you get, when you suddenly realize, this ain't the way its suppose to happen. My respect and honor to you and your brother Marines.

[03Mike]

Semper Fi Tony - as a member of the Walking Dead a generation later, you and your brothers were never far from our thoughts, knowing that we carried your legacy on our shoulders.

[Zulu 36]

Happy 4th Tony. Semper Fi

[ggyoung]

Operation Buffalo was one of the bloodiest Ops for the Marines in Vietnam.