Below is my annual Memorial Day tribute to my fallen Marine buddies. Many have seen it in previous years; to those I apologize for the redundency but it is somenting I must do in an attempt to keep their memories alive. I will be involved on pre-Memorial Day and some WW-II Memorial dedication related activities tomorrow so thought I'd post this a day early.
............................. I Remember ..............................
I remember PFC Arthur Willie Green (14-E-56), KIA 20 Jan 67. Our recon team was on a hilltop, calling in an artillery mission on a Battalion of NVA moving through the valley below. A "short round" from the Marine artillery battery at An Hoa landed right inside the team perimeter. Willie was standing, looking through the binoculars into the valley at the time and was split from sternum to pelvis; killed instantly by the exploding 105mm round. The entire team was wounded.
Lt Eric Barnes (17-E-41) and SSgt Godfried Blankenship (17-E-48) were both hit within minutes of each other on 26 Mar 67. Barnes, leading a recon patrol that came upon a group of thatched hootches, moved forward to check them out. As he approached, he was hit by intense automatic weapons fire from the NVA occupants. SSgt Blankenship, the Platoon Sgt, moved forward to Lt Barnes? side and was, himself, hit. Both bled profusely and finally bled to death on the chopper en-route 1st Med Bn at Danang.
I also remember PFC Michael Ray Smith (19-E-113). Mike and I went to Recon School together several months earlier. He was on patrol with another team on
13 May 67 moving in low brush on the side of some worthless little hill in the Hiep Duc Valley. A Company of NVA ambushed the team and Mike took two AK-47 rounds in the back and one in the chest. He died in the dirt waiting for the dust-off.
When I close my eyes, I can still picture PFC Erwin Lovell (19-E-120). He'd been badly burned in a fire as a child and bore terrible scars over his entire upper body. He went through Marine Recon School with Mike Smith and I. Late on one of those insufferably hot and dark Vietnam nights he heard the NVA approach as they moved through the triple canopy jungle attempting to locate the team night lager. He threw a grenade at the sound. Unfortunately, it hit a tree and bounced back into the team position. He threw himself on the grenade to protect the rest of the team and, on 14 May 67, made the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow Recon Marines.
HM2 Michael Laporte had hair so blond it was almost white. He was a rather short, easy-going, likable guy and a 'numba one' corpsman. At almost the last minute, he volunteered to fill in as Corpsman for a patrol into Happy Valley. Literally crawling with VC and NVA, it was ANYTHING but a happy place for the Marines of 1st Recon. On the night of 5 Sep 67, the team did a night parachute insert. All departed in good shape but Doc's parachute started drifting away from the stick. He was last seen going into heavy triple-canopy jungle. "Doc" Laporte was gone without a trace. Listed as MIA until his status was changed by the Secretary of the Navy to Presumed Dead.
LCpl Ronald L. Kitzke is at 32-E-76 on the wall. He was a close friend since Marine Boot Camp. He came from Wawatosa WI and died on the evening of 27 Dec
67, on another little hilltop in Happy Valley. It was an OP (observation post) mission and ?Ski? was part of the security element. He heard movement in the brush and looked down the trail thinking it was the observation element returning to the perimeter. He was met by a three-round burst from the AK-47 of a rifleman of the approaching NVA platoon. He was hit twice through the mouth and neck and once in the upper chest. It took several hours of artillery, air support: F-4s, A-4s - one shot down, US and VNAF A-1s, and finally an AC-47 to quell the NVA assault enough to get a helicopter in to extricate our 8-man recon team. The overhead FAC estimated total NVA force as a reinforced Bn. The damage done by the three 7.62mm rounds was tremendous and there was no way to stop the bleeding deep in his shredded throat. Despite the valiant efforts of Doc Highum, Ski bled to death on the floor of the CH-46, that finally got in to extract us some two hours after being hit (his flight lead was also shot down in the extraction attempt).
I remember Hospital Corpsman-3 Robert Louis Tracey (34-E-72) as well. He was in the bush as part of an 8 man recon team on 18 Jan 68. When the NVA sprung an ambush, dropping the point man and machine-gunner with small arms and a Chi-Com claymore, Bob immediately and unhesitatingly ran forward to the sound of the gunfire. The NVA knew as well as the Marines the Corpsman would come to help his wounded buddies and they waited for him. He was killed instantly in the hail of gunfire he knew would be awaiting him as he dropped to the side of the wounded point man.
I'll never forget the way LCpl Michael G. Murdock died. On 1 Feb 68, Mike was the team radio operator on a patrol on it?s way to Charlie Ridge. As the Ch-46 circled and descended to the LZ, Mike suddenly disappeared in a flash of light and spray of body parts. An RPG, fired from a concealed NVA position on the ground, came right through the side window of the helo and detonated on Mike's rucksack/radio. The helo crashed but, luckily, no one else was killed. He now lives in our memories and you can find him on the wall at 36-E-57.
Sgt "J.J." Jones (53-W-02) left 2nd Platoon to take another recon team. On 3 Jun 68, he was leading that team to one the nondescript ridges of Elephant Valley. As the CH-46 was approaching the steep-sided landing zone, it came under intense fire and went down. As those in the second helo tried to return fire, they watched in horror as JJ's helo careened down the steep slope of the ridge in a fireball. The flight crew and all four Recon Marines aboard were killed. A reaction team later recovered the burned bodies and brought them to
1st Med Bn in Danang. The only way to identify JJ's charred remains was by his rather large and unusually shaped nose, which was somehow still relatively intact.
LCpl Fred Brisch isn?t on the wall either. Freddie departed Vietnam in early spring of 1967 under his own power (I took the M-79 from him when he left). Like Tony Velez, memories of seeing and experiencing too much pain and suffering in too short a time became unbearable. Some 10 years after leaving the NAM, Fred "smoked" the barrel of his police revolver.
You won't find Cpl Tony Velez on the Wall. He didn?t die in Vietnam but was killed as a result of his service there as sure as if by an NVA bullet. Tony was hit in the side by two Ak-47 rounds during the same action that killed Mike Smith, though he recovered from (the physical) wounds. His death went unreported to the military. Tony went KIA a some years later when he could no longer stand the pain, both physical and emotional, and took his own life in the fall of 1990.
Now I must add Manuel Barriero to the list. "Pappy" as we called him, also survived the combat of Vietnam. However, the Agent Orange we were frequently exposed to out in the bush finally claimed him in December of 2002 when he finally succumbed to the cancer he had bravely fought for years.
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" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon