PURPLE HEART: WIA 29OCT1969....................
10/29/09...It has been forty years since I lived through this story...........
...............It is a beautiful medal. It's shape a golden heart with a smaller purple one atop that, and General George Washington's bust atop that, held by a gold ring to the purple ribbon that has a narrow white stripe running down each side. On the back of the medal it says "FOR MILITARY MERIT" just above my engraved name.I know I gave all.............
..............I was 20 years old on the day I was wounded in Cambodia. The government said we were never there, but we were. It was our job to ferret out the enemy, or any enemy activites up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail that had many branches along the Vietnam-Cambodian border...........
..............The trails came down south from the north and Hanoi where they started, running mostly on the west side of the central highlands in Laos and Cambodia, and then east into III CORP of Vietnam undulating into several strategic branches all around and near Saigon. The enemy was wise in his use of the jungle, and knew his land, after all it was his country..........
..............We were the invaders butting ourheads into their business. We would have been smarter to have told the French to get out in 1946, but we didn't. Later in 1956 at Dien Bien Phu, the French Foreign Legion was almost wiped out to the man by a most primitive Viet Minh Army. But look at who's not laughing now.
...............We the USA were soon involved by some political trickery. If any leaders had had foresight, we would never of been there as enemies, but rather allies I think. The Vietnamese, and the North Vietnamese Army, and the Viet Cong guerillas were formidable fighters everywhere we engaged them. There were no pussys here, except that they fought like cats with dogs, and we were "the dogs of war"............
..............As post WWII children, most of us who served by choice or the draft, were beliving the information we were fed from birth and childhood to our early manhood, that the Red Communist Octopus was trying to spread its arms and tentacles around the world and take over..........
..............In retrospect, we seemed as primitive or lacking intuition as anybody, because we all know now that governments and political models come and goe with all regularity through history of civilization and mankind. Religions have been far more responcible for major global conflicts, and death and destruction, then singular political aspirations.............
..............Like pretty much all american soldiers, I was certain that I would rather serve the cause of freedom and die, then to be nobody and do nothing. To be a hero was more important then life itself............
..............We had tracked the enemy for days as part of a six week long mission, and no end was in sight. We believed we would find and kill all enemies, until we would meet our own deaths. A pretty simple idea, with a simple and heroic end. To die in that 'Blaze of Glory". What boys we really were still, following orders to die and kill...............
..............I remember looking at my watch the moment we heard voices. It was 1505 hours. We thought for sure we had them now, and quietly made sign to each others of our strategy. We practiced whenever possible fire superiority, and so rushed the enemy with guns ablazing, only to find we had only been tracking scouts to a much larger enemy element............
..............We were badly outnumbered about 6 to 1, us six to 36 of the enemy, and they were all dressed in the khaki uniforms of the NVA including 5 or 6 with red on their epaulets indicating the officers, this was a tried and true element of the 322nd NVA Division, and most of them averaged 35 years old, probably even having fought against the French at Dien Bien Phu............
.............We were all 19-20-21, and much younger. But we fought tenaciously to win. The odds were very much against us, but the element of surprise gave us important advantage, and we took down several enemy in the first seconds of engagement. Soon however we were out flanked on our left, and the NVA had set up their machine gun, and now had us pinned down, as they began to surround us better to take us all down, killing us.........
..............I made the decision to rush the machine gun to eliminate it, while my comrades kept up massive fire into the enemy at our flanks..........
............As I crouched, and then charged into the middle taking out the machine gunner, I was hit and knocked down on my back. I knew I was hit, but there was no time to be dead, I shook free the empty magazine from my M-16 weapon and attempted to reload, but my left arm I could not feel. I quickly saw the bullet hole through my shirt just above my heart. I recognized I was feeling warm and dizzy, and quickly getting weak..........
...........As my buddies continued to fight back at the enemy, I tried to assess my situation, it was hopeless. I had taken a bullet through my left shoulder, and it had severed the artery. I knew I was going to bleed out and die right here, and decided I would not cry out or humiliate myself in death. It was more neccessary to die a hero..........
...............the award............
...............the boy soldier...........
..................my retirement at almost 23 years old..........
..................ENJOYING THE FREEDOM I FOUGHT FOR...............
...............It is a beautiful medal. It's shape a golden heart with a smaller purple one atop that, and General George Washington's bust atop that, held by a gold ring to the purple ribbon that has a narrow white stripe running down each side. On the back of the medal it says "FOR MILITARY MERIT" just above my engraved name.I know I gave all.............
..............I was 20 years old on the day I was wounded in Cambodia. The government said we were never there, but we were. It was our job to ferret out the enemy, or any enemy activites up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail that had many branches along the Vietnam-Cambodian border...........
..............The trails came down south from the north and Hanoi where they started, running mostly on the west side of the central highlands in Laos and Cambodia, and then east into III CORP of Vietnam undulating into several strategic branches all around and near Saigon. The enemy was wise in his use of the jungle, and knew his land, after all it was his country..........
..............We were the invaders butting ourheads into their business. We would have been smarter to have told the French to get out in 1946, but we didn't. Later in 1956 at Dien Bien Phu, the French Foreign Legion was almost wiped out to the man by a most primitive Viet Minh Army. But look at who's not laughing now.
...............We the USA were soon involved by some political trickery. If any leaders had had foresight, we would never of been there as enemies, but rather allies I think. The Vietnamese, and the North Vietnamese Army, and the Viet Cong guerillas were formidable fighters everywhere we engaged them. There were no pussys here, except that they fought like cats with dogs, and we were "the dogs of war"............
..............As post WWII children, most of us who served by choice or the draft, were beliving the information we were fed from birth and childhood to our early manhood, that the Red Communist Octopus was trying to spread its arms and tentacles around the world and take over..........
..............In retrospect, we seemed as primitive or lacking intuition as anybody, because we all know now that governments and political models come and goe with all regularity through history of civilization and mankind. Religions have been far more responcible for major global conflicts, and death and destruction, then singular political aspirations.............
..............Like pretty much all american soldiers, I was certain that I would rather serve the cause of freedom and die, then to be nobody and do nothing. To be a hero was more important then life itself............
..............We had tracked the enemy for days as part of a six week long mission, and no end was in sight. We believed we would find and kill all enemies, until we would meet our own deaths. A pretty simple idea, with a simple and heroic end. To die in that 'Blaze of Glory". What boys we really were still, following orders to die and kill...............
..............I remember looking at my watch the moment we heard voices. It was 1505 hours. We thought for sure we had them now, and quietly made sign to each others of our strategy. We practiced whenever possible fire superiority, and so rushed the enemy with guns ablazing, only to find we had only been tracking scouts to a much larger enemy element............
..............We were badly outnumbered about 6 to 1, us six to 36 of the enemy, and they were all dressed in the khaki uniforms of the NVA including 5 or 6 with red on their epaulets indicating the officers, this was a tried and true element of the 322nd NVA Division, and most of them averaged 35 years old, probably even having fought against the French at Dien Bien Phu............
.............We were all 19-20-21, and much younger. But we fought tenaciously to win. The odds were very much against us, but the element of surprise gave us important advantage, and we took down several enemy in the first seconds of engagement. Soon however we were out flanked on our left, and the NVA had set up their machine gun, and now had us pinned down, as they began to surround us better to take us all down, killing us.........
..............I made the decision to rush the machine gun to eliminate it, while my comrades kept up massive fire into the enemy at our flanks..........
............As I crouched, and then charged into the middle taking out the machine gunner, I was hit and knocked down on my back. I knew I was hit, but there was no time to be dead, I shook free the empty magazine from my M-16 weapon and attempted to reload, but my left arm I could not feel. I quickly saw the bullet hole through my shirt just above my heart. I recognized I was feeling warm and dizzy, and quickly getting weak..........
...........As my buddies continued to fight back at the enemy, I tried to assess my situation, it was hopeless. I had taken a bullet through my left shoulder, and it had severed the artery. I knew I was going to bleed out and die right here, and decided I would not cry out or humiliate myself in death. It was more neccessary to die a hero..........
...............the award............
...............the boy soldier...........
..................my retirement at almost 23 years old..........
..................ENJOYING THE FREEDOM I FOUGHT FOR...............
