The Bell UH-1 Huey helicopter strained under the extra weight of the wounded, but the pilots were able to get us out safely. By some miracle, we did not receive a single hit. Up in relative safety, I finally got a chance to see what had been handed to me. I looked down and hanging outside of the blanket was a combat boot containing a foot attached limply to a leg! The blanket held what was left of one of my soldiers. I can recall someone saying, ‘This whole damn country ain’t worth that kid’s life.’

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Company C did quite well that night. They had two killed and 11 wounded. The Communists lost at least 32 men, and we captured 12 AK-47s, several rocket launchers and a .50-caliber machine gun. Morrow was grateful for our help. I was proud of him. Morrow conducted himself well during a number of other skirmishes while I commanded the 2/12. The most critical, and the one that stands out in my mind, was a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attack on a night defensive position where I coordinated the two companies involved. Earlier that day, we had gotten word that one of our helicopters had been fired upon in the vicinity of the Boloi Woods. Division headquarters wanted someone to check out that area. We were put on standby for the mission.

It took several hours for the Hueys to arrive, so it was late afternoon before my two companies were inserted. I went in with a small command group, consisting of an operations sergeant and two radio operators. We searched the area until nearly dusk but saw no signs of enemy troops. I then got word that we were to set up defensive positions that evening and resume the search the following morning.

I selected an area away from the tree line where we could mark our positions well, in the event we had to use gunships and air support. We would also be able to evacuate our wounded by helicopter more easily. The natural shelter afforded by the paddy dikes provided some protection from small-arms fire. I decided to use a rectangular-shaped defense, thereby taking advantage of the dikes and giving each company two sides of the rectangle to defend. My command post would be in the center. Working until about 11 p.m., I was satisfied that we were in a position to repulse any enemy attack of reasonable size.

Shortly after midnight, the thud of mortars began to resound within the perimeter and the surrounding area. Soon afterward, small-arms fire broke out to our front, and our troops began to return it. I notified brigade headquarters and asked for gunships. Lieutenant Johnson already had fire coming into the sector where the small-arms fire originated. The mortars continued. Another sector began receiving fire, and I could see the outline of figures in the intermittent glow of the incoming mortars and our own artillery fire. We were under a full-scale ground attack.

Our troops were putting out a hail of fire, and I pressed them to put out even more. I could still see the figures rapidly approaching, and not as many as I had expected were falling. They were getting so close we began to use hand grenades. The gunships arrived, and I contacted the pilots and gave them an area to work over with their rockets and machine guns. I lost contact with my Company B commander, a Captain Bulgarin, a new officer who had recently taken command. I soon received word from one of his lieutenants that two of our bunkers had been hit and Bulgarin was dead. I appointed the senior lieutenant as company commander and instructed him to hold at all costs.

Through it all, Captain Morrow was as steady as a rock, giving me periodic reports and reassuring me that his sector could hold. Somehow he even found time to check Company B’s sector and offer encouragement to the newly appointed company commander. The battle raged throughout the night. The artillery and gunships really raked the area around our perimeter, and at about 4 a.m., things quieted down. We had a chance to lick our wounds and assess our casualties. The enemy had taken out two of our bunkers, killing all of the occupants. We had nine dead and two wounded. The five or six hours spent digging in and setting up wire and Claymore mines certainly had decreased our casualties considerably.

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