Nam Tour Of Duty!

[Gy7ras]

Corporal R. A. Sanchez

July 70- April 71

Squad Leader 0311

Delta 1/7 - LZ Baldy

Lima 3/5 - Hill 34

Golf 2/1 - Marble Mountain

WIA x2 Medivaced To Okinawa 1 April 1970.

[Gy7ras]

I was assigned as a squad leader to 1st battalion seventh Marines, Delta Company at LZ Baldy when I got to Nam. With one more week of training in combat skills related to Nam, I would join my unit out in the jungle somewhere.
Gunny Roberts who was our company gunny covered many combat topics with us. First he told us that our job description was to pursue, engage and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, and what to do when you were up to your eyeballs in VC. He was good at explanations, but one of the strangest topics was kill zones and no kill zones. The difference, kill zones are always combat zones; no kill zones only become kill zones after dark. No matter what we did, we must always capture enemy weapons after a firefight. It’s the proof we need to justify the enemy dead. Not having weapons meant we killed innocent civilians. In this case we could be brought up on manslaughter charges. We must remember that Vietnam is not a declared war, but only a police action. Another point to remember is that if we encounter enemy forces in a no kill zone during daylight hours, we could only return fire if we called in and got permission to do so. Again we must have enemy weapons to cover our asses. I always thought that war was kill or be killed,I was not so sure now, How I’d react in my first real combat, or even survive it.

Gy7ras

[Barlow]

Gunny,

Unusual number of line companies for a years tour .I never understood the constant transfers . People we had trained with were siphoned off to other units new people came in to be assimilated . One good troop left us in Summer of 66 as a PFC , I saw him at the end of our tour ,he had just joined his third battalion but was a Sgt. He richly deserved the stripes but he did not deserve the shuffle .

[Gy7ras]

Barlow!

Yes you're right that is an unusual number of line companies if your tour in Nam was from the begining in 65 till around the end of 1968.

From the beginning of 1969 the Vietnam Civic Action program started as far as I know, and that was also the beginnig of the pullout or drawdown from Nam. Many Marines at that time especialy the new guys were shifted from line company to line company in order to complete their tour.

I stayed a squad leader my whole tour, but all that shifting around in my case, kept me from being promoted!

Semper FI

GY7ras

[Joseph P Carey]

I was with Kilo 3/7, 65 and 66. I jopined the Company in the field as a replacement from Echo 2/8, 2nd Mar Div, in November 65, and I know what the Gunny said about not getting much in the way of promotion when you are the new guy. I thought I would be under an NCO for my whole time in the Corps, but luickily, I distinguished myself well, and promotions came!

[Preacher]

1st Gun Squad, 81s Plt, H&S Co, 1/4, August '67-January "68
and Alpha 6/9, Hotel 1, 3rd CAG, III MAF, January "68-June '68
Wounded in action and medivaced out in June '68.