My Father's Brothers (2019) Movie Script
1
We had been out on a search
and the battalion had called down
and told us to move to a
because they would have
move us back to a base area.
And from there we would launch into.
And as we were getting ready to go back,
and we're moving in a column of twos
cutting our way through the jungle.
And we had stopped.
And all the way back down the line,
each of the following three platoons
are broken out column.
And then about every hour,
and we'd stop and.
And each platoon would put
or the left flank to
in case the enemy slipped up on us.
I remember standing up.
And we began to move out.
And way back in the back,
his name was Fritz,
and he went up to squad.
"We've left the two guys back."
They haven't come back in,
And the squad leader just sort of
I mean, the troop is moving,
And he said, "Oh, it's okay,
They'll be here."
And so we moved.
And so after a while,
and went up to the next guy
and all this time we're still moving.
And finally the patrol leader
he says, "Sir",
And so we halted the column
and I went back to where
and we sent a fire team of five guys out
to see if they were still there.
And there they were about 50 yards out,
laying down on a trail protecting us
and we'd gone off and left them.
I turned to Fritz,
and there was the squad
and on either side of his collar.
He was a Sergeant.
And I took his stripes off of him
and I said, "You're relieved."
And I turned around and there was Fritz,
the guy who had alerted us,
and I reached down and pined the stripes.
"Fritz, you're a Sergeant."
And he did.
He had them dig deep that night,
had them check their grenades,
make sure everything was safe.
He would be killed on the 29th of June.
That's my father in 1966.
He survived two tours of Vietnam
and three helicopter crashes over there.
He commanded troops in combat
with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
He earned the Silver Star,
the Army's third highest hon our
the Distinguished Flying Cross
the Bronze Star for valour in combat,
which he earned seven times,
and the Purple Heart for.
That's me in 1966.
For most of my life, I really had.
Yes, I knew he had been in Vietnam,
I thought he had a desk job over there.
I suppose I was like a lot of.
You took what your.
He didn't talk about the war.
During a recent trip to the
I started asking him questions
and he agreed to tell me.
It seems like all my life
I was prone to something to.
At an early age I went to
in St. Petersburg, Florida,
and then for college.
As soon as I graduated,
in the Army, and then I was off.
And it seemed to me that
if I wanted to advance,
if I wanted to learn
about being an infantry officer,
about being an Army officer,
I needed to be where the battle was.
And I requested assignment to.
And that was all well and
and told my wife what I had done.
Then my husband came home
for Vietnam and he.
And I thought, I didn't know
volunteering for Vietnam or
I think maybe telling me he volunteered
was the craziest thing.
In fact, I remember very clearly
I wrote down on a piece of paper,
I promise I will not.
My dad invited me
to go to the 173rd
to meet some of the men
so I would have a better understanding
of what they experienced.
It had been 50 years
since they had been in Vietnam together.
I got out of high school in
I joined the Army.
I went down to a recruiter.
My dad was a career Marine.
My mom and dad had to sign off
when I got out of high school and,
I was drafted, I got my high
and my draft papers in the other
and I was off and running
I enlisted in the army
still in high school.
I'd always wanted to
and I wanted to become a
I had started working at
right out of high school and.
Was drafted about a year later.
I was graduating high
and a good friend of mine decided,
that we wanted to enter the military.
I joined shortly after high school.
It was a 4th of July.
I was out with some of the
and we weren't paying attention to
and we hit the back of the
and we locked our bumpers together.
So my dad said it'd be a good idea
to go and talk to him and apologize.
He sat me down at a.
We started talking and right
I'll never forget it.
It was a poster of a Golden.
I went home that night.
"So what'd you do today?
I said, "I did."
He said, "Where?"
I said, "United States Army."
I had a buddy that had agreed
to go in the military
cause we were both in the lottery
and he was a student.
And September when I got
I called him and he said,
My grades are good and I'm.
Well, I had my doubts about that.
Gus wasn't a good student.
But Gus got drafted and.
And when he came home for Christmas,
I was home from advanced infantry.
And Gus was having a hell of a time
cause that military school.
So he didn't go back to Fort Benning.
He committed suicide on.
And his funeral was on Monday
and I had to be back at Fort Jackson,
so I missed his funeral.
So I started my whole army career out
with one of the biggest traumas
you can imagine in your life.
Getting to Saigon when
was a really exciting experience,
but you didn't know what to expect.
And they ushered us into
and they put us in a circus tent.
The mortars hit the tent and
and there was a lot of.
So they got who was able.
We loaded buses and left Saigon,
40 or 50 miles an hour right.
And our first look at Saigon
was just by the lightning flashes.
There was a heavy storm.
Appropriate for us.
I got to A Company on March 15th, 1966.
The next morning I got up,
I was on my way to breakfast
and there was a couple of guys
listening to the firefight that.
That was my first experience
with even being associated
I can remember my response
to the Company armourer at the time.
I said, "I don't even."
And he said, "Just wait a."
Well, when I first got there,
They had a major engagement
while we were down in Tan Son Nhut
and they were coming
and got ambushed on a
I don't know how many were killed,
but many, many were wounded.
And so when we got up there,
When we first got in the Company area,
we heard some choppers coming
all the guys that had
started coming in and they.
And the looks on their faces,
Everybody looked like
and nobody talked or anything.
It was just pretty damn scary.
And then they came back and
and then I was the FNG.
Yeah, but it was an experience.
Great group of guys.
Made some of the best.
That was my first night in Vietnam
and I spent about probably
before it got daylight and I got up
and started looking around.
It was a desolate place.
All them old tents looked
but nobody lived in them but.
That's where we'd go get rested up
and take a shower and get our C-rations
and the brass would get the orders
and we'd load up and go out
and do another search and destroy.
That's about all we did.
The officers had their own officers club
and they kept their liquor.
We were coming back
and noticed that the hinges
were pinned on the outside of the door
with a padlock on the handle,
so we took the pins out,
went in and stole a whole box of liquor,
different bottles,
They never realized anything was gone,
so we did it again at.
The third time we went back,
the hinges were on the.
Now, that was fantastic.
That was probably the funniest
that we got away with the.
After about three weeks in the country,
for a week at a time or more
and spend a few days.
Your first patrol when
you're just nervous
what the hell you're looking for,
And you think any moment
you're gonna get ambushed and blown up.
Triple canopy was
but you heard every little bug, insect.
It was constant, you were soaking wet
all the time from sweat.
As time went on, the old guys
for a month or two would
and what you're doing and
that were gonna keep you alive.
You caught on quick.
It was a matter of life.
So I was on radio watch one night,
Sergeant Brown was over here,
I was next to him and
spread out a little bit.
And I heard this strange noise coming
and it was in the trees.
I couldn't figure out what it was.
And it got louder and it got.
So finally I woke up.
"Sergeant Brown, Sergeant Brown,
I don't know what it is."
And he looked at me and he said,
"It's monkeys, get under your poncho."
And so we rolled over under the poncho
I mean, it must've been
and they're crapping on you.
And finally they left and he said,
"Okay, you can come up now."
And we were just covered.
And I said, "Does this happen often?"
He said, "Yeah, every once in a while
you'll get stuck with it."
And he said, "They just
and they're extremely noisy."
And it was a little bit terrifying to me
because I had no clue what.
You moved along in areas hopefully
where you had a lot of cover.
Many movies depict infantry
and moving across open fields.
We did our best to never do that
unless there was no other way to do it.
Sometimes you had to
and unless you wanted to spend
you had to go across it.
You tried to avoid any trails
and that's when you really
for trip wires or pits.
Most of the patrols were very slow.
If they weren't slow,
The reason they were slow is.
You had to put out flank security,
security in the rear.
You had maybe a couple of point men
that would go ahead and
and look for enemy and.
Whenever the point man
he would stop and you'd investigate it.
And sometimes you get yelled.
"Move it up, move it up, move it up."
And to your people.
"Yeah, you're not down here."
You move as fast as you safely can.
We seem to just hit a lot.
There was always
guys leaving and new guys coming in.
Young kids, we were all 18, 19 years old
and you got very close.
Tried not to 'cause you didn't
cause it'd hurt when they got killed
but you couldn't help but make friends.
It wasn't about communism;
It was about being airborne infantry.
I was an enlisted forward observer.
It was just an adventure
and I was having a good old time.
And then when you get in a fight,
I don't think the reality of war
had really struck any of us.
All our middle names were John Wayne
and we were gonna end all this crap.
And that lasted until that.
Then reality did strike.
And the orders came
we were gonna leave out
I passed it down to my platoon leaders,
"Once we're there, I want each
I want the first platoon
I want the second platoon
I want the third platoon to remain
and then I'm gonna keep
under Lieutenant Vendetti.
Once battalion clears us,
I want each of you three platoon leaders
to start moving to the west
to see if you can find.
The battalion commander
a thousand meters apart.
It's gonna be a problem later on.
If we're a thousand meters apart
and each company was doing that as well,
we would cover more area.
We would have a chance to screen out
to make sure we didn't.
Did you want your platoons
to be a thousand meters apart?
No.
We never did it again.
June 28th, we had come to this area,
we'd been moving around
and we came to this area.
Now, my platoon was set up on a ridge.
There was a valley, there was.
It went into a village and a road
and there was a road that came.
And when we got off the helicopter,
it was dry next to a
where we were supposed
and it was supposed to
before we made the charge on the 29th.
But when we got in the rubber trees
and we got comfortable
and got ready for the rain,
some of the second platoon.
They had been in a mess
and they were worn out
and they did a lot of stuff.
So they told us to go
and they were gonna take our position
and rest up in the perimeter.
So that kind of pissed everybody off.
And I had just gotten my tent set up
and I couldn't wait to get my boots off
and get in there and
before I had to do guard duty.
And they came up and I.
"Now this is my place and it's
put you own up but
with them muddy boots.
We had had lots of villagers
cause there was this trail.
And they weren't armed.
And I remember seeing pieces
of white tape on some of the bike tires,
which we at the time.
Cause I learned this later going back,
this is how they did it.
Count the number of revolutions of
the tire multiplied times the
and you've got the distance.
A rough distance from where you've got.
Right when the sun was breaking,
we received two mortars,
I don't think it was one,
right in our lines.
It a killed Jesse Felder.
And all we heard was the bloop,
It was a mad rush to get our dead
cause I helped carry Felder
and his arm fell out, hit me on the leg.
I went on the LP and I was out.
It never occurred to me
to where we were until we went back in
the morning of the 29th.
It was my hammock that the
and Felder died from the mortar blast.
And that's where I'd have been
if they hadn't taken our position.
If they'd have been on LP,
I would have been there.
So I had that to think
we got on the chopper that day.
And I remember us
going to another area,
and then being split up into platoons.
I met some Lrps,
that were there because they briefed me
and they told me they'd
and they hadn't seen a thing.
Now, knowing now what I know now,
how they didn't see.
I don't know how they did it
because there was a whole large.
He said, we've been out
and it's pretty quiet.
And as he was getting on the chopper.
He said, "Oh, by the way," he said,
"There's an old path over there
and there's some footprints.
We couldn't find the end of it."
And he said, "Oh yeah, one more thing.
There's some commo wire out there."
And he said, "We never.
And all of a sudden I'm like, "Hmm."
It had rained for two days previously,
and so we started out
I believe, four groups,
but I was part of third platoon
and we were probably out for
I use the word stumbled,
Vietcong battalion base camp.
We had come across some trails
and it was pretty muddy and.
The front squad had noticed
a latrine
that would be used for a larger element.
We were getting ready to
and the firing started.
Don't remember exactly,
but maybe four or five shots.
And then shortly after that,
It was horrendous gun fire.
And they just opened up on.
Small arms, machine guns,
pretty much wiped out the.
The first time we knew that
was not because of radio
we could hear it.
And then the communications
and the platoon began to
and it was a large force
and within 30 or 40 minutes.
They were in deep trouble.
Sergeant Morris came back
and I believe he was wounded
and told us to dig in the best we could.
I remember trying to dig
but it kept filling with water.
From then on, the firing.
That's the thing I remember the most.
The sound of the 50 calibres.
Even the trees falling.
I was probably.
They shot the two guys on point
and people were hit left and right.
And there was an ant hill.
And I laid down behind that thing.
I think that cord will probably.
And he had it stretched
as far as it would go and standing up,
talking on the radio.
Next time the fire came, it hit him.
And I remember turning around
and his rifle was slung on his shoulder.
And it looked like to me
and his arm was hanging on.
We heard gunfire; It was quick.
It was very fast.
It was (mimicking gun.
And right away I knew from
that that's not a good thing
cause then you know what's coming next.
And then all of a sudden.
And they were calling for.
"We're surrounded, we need help."
And Captain Kelley was on
he just told all of us,
"Everybody now,
We're all gonna kind of converge
and see what we can do to
that was in so much trouble.
We just moved out.
We'd never run that fast
with rucksacks on our.
And when we got close
had us drop our rucksacks.
And I have no idea who it was.
He said, told somebody.
To guard them.
And at the time I thought,
"God, I wish that would have been me."
Later I'm sort of glad,
who would want to be left out
I'm so glad it wasn't me.
You'd see a grenade come
and come in and you'd.
The mortar rounds were worse,
and then you just had to wait and try
and hear it come through the trees.
The enemy actually.
This was a battalion size unit
against this platoon of 30 or 40 guys.
To this day,
the gunpowder smell, the smoke.
Everywhere you looked,
bodies, the wounded.
Some of the guys that took some hits
that were probably really
and, unfortunately, that just drew fire
and most of those ended
just because of that.
There's two things that.
One was, "Medic," and the other was...
There were several that would say,
I distinctly remember tracer rounds
hitting between myself and the M60.
At that point I was hit
in front of us and stunned me.
And I went the rest of the.
Then we came across some.
We thought that'd be a good place to be.
And as soon as we got close to them,
they really opened up on us.
They had that whole area covered.
We moved back and at that time
I knew I was in trouble
just 'cause I couldn't get my breath
and I could hear the.
So I had something...
My lung was opened up.
Luckily it was just one.
There was a big termite mound,
probably a four foot in diameter
by three foot high dirt mound.
And I started pulling.
Hido and Fritz, they were the first two
and they were pretty shot up.
Fritz was just bleeding out.
There wasn't much I could
he was missing an arm.
I tried to get that stopped.
"It's getting so dark in here,
And I kept trying to get
and he just bled out.
I was in a position where I
that was happening and
I had my radio and then I made contact
with the artillery folks and
that lasted about 10 minutes,
putting in some test rounds
to sort of get a bearing.
And my estimate was, they were.
So I told them to drop a hundred
and they got in a discussion with me
and I found out later
had done a couple of
but they got in a discussion with me
about whether that would be too close.
And at the time, this horrific fight
and my response to him was,
"We're on the point of being overrun,
drop a hundred and fire,
And then they tried to overrun us.
They first opened up
and then the 50s and fired.
One of the rockets landed right
in the middle of us.
I remember an arm flying by me.
Then that's when they really opened up.
Fortunately, we were able to repel that.
Someone said, "Why isn't."
And I said, "It's because.
He said, "Bring the radio over."
And so it was about 40, 50, 60 feet.
And so I left.
By that time, my M16 was jammed.
So I was in between.
And I actually left the
and I went across this area.
They had deep bunkers,
overhead cover that they had built in,
trenches going from position to position
so they could move about and fire.
I remember that several of my guys
reported that they had,
they had cut out through the brush
so that they could fire through that
and they still had protection
and camouflage so that.
And I took the radio
and first thing he said before
he says, "Where's your rifle?"
I said, "Back jammed behind the tree."
Then he said, "Okay."
He said, "You leave the radio here"
and you get back and put that.
So I went back and I
but I was in a process
when I got shot the first time.
Then we were getting low on ammo.
So I was crawling up front,
and taking the ammo off the dead guys.
Also,
taking
battle dressings off of them,
because we were all out of those
and the wounded guys needed.
First time I get shot, I got shot in
all I was doing, I couldn't breathe.
It was like blood in and blood out.
That was the time that I.
Next thing I remember is James Miskel
on the other side of the M60.
He pulled the plastic wrap.
He packed the wound with gauze
or whatever was available
and he put the plastic over that
and then wrapped it tightly.
When I had been hit,
I was having a lot of trouble breathing
cause both bullets had
and both had hit ribs.
And then all of a sudden I had.
And I did what 50% of the people did.
I called for the medic
and someone, I don't know who,
And we were out of morphine
and the medic had been killed
and there was none left in his bag.
So I went up farther up
and that's where Charlie
and some of the other guys were.
And what had happened
in this right-hand pocket
and I had been hit
and when I pulled the compass out first,
it was all gnarled where.
And then the bullet came out up above.
And I had this big
where the bullet came out.
But what it had been,
and the only way I can describe it
is if you take a baseball bat
and just hit someone in the chest.
That's how it felt.
And the bullet went out.
It was deflected, I believe,
by the compass because the
I dropped the compass.
It would have been the
but that's what you do.
And I dropped the compass.
And I thought everything.
And I didn't have the rifle
but then right after that,
and then I got shot twice in the back.
I was out of it for a little bit,
but I do remember being
pretty much the rest of the time,
and getting weaker as the time went on.
Remember being very low or out of ammo.
It was real apparent that
and that I needed to get out of there.
And there were two
two black guys that were.
And they said, "Why don't
come over here?"
And I can remember,
and it wasn't the brightest
but I asked him something like,
And they said, "Get the F over here."
So I crawled over there
I couldn't stand up any more.
And that's where I spent.
As we were moving towards them,
And we were getting very close to them
and then there was a
I couldn't tell you how many
and they started shooting at us.
And one of them was blind from
and one of them had been
and of one of them's name was Leon Exum.
The other one,
And all we had left, they had.
There was an M79 grenade launcher.
So the three of us in kind
put that M79 into play.
And I had been shot in the right side
but I can put my arm up like that.
The guy that was blind actually propped
the M79 grenade launcher on my elbow.
And the guy who had been
who owned the M79,
he actually gave the guidance
and we would pop off a round.
We did this until we.
What I do know is the Vietcong,
they have the same routine
because we were causing some damage
because after the rounds would go off,
There was a small gully
as long as we didn't stand up,
we could crouch down and move along.
And when we got toward
where we could get out of it,
everybody checked their self,
got ready to go.
And that's when John.
He went up out of the ravine
and as soon as he got both
he got killed.
Shot in the neck.
When the third platoon initially
it was because their
some enemy latrines and.
The point squad was led by.
He immediately found it,
told him the enemy was there.
No sooner had they reported that,
and eventually they got surrounded.
But Morris again took his squad,
He found the enemy was firing at him.
He and two other guys moved out behind
from where they were and.
Later on, the enemy put a 50 calibre
and tried to put it in.
He and another guy,
The other guy was killed in action,
I remember him coming back to us
and I'm fairly certain he was,
but he was probably seriously
and he spent most of his time at that...
From that point forward,
he spent most of his time
working with that group,
although he continually made rounds,
made sure everybody was okay.
Assigning firing lanes.
Making sure everybody had areas covered.
But Morris was, he was an.
He was an infantryman
and intended to do everything
to make the mission work.
He was that kind of guy.
I can remember Charlie
at the Vietcong saying,
"Come on, I've only got one good."
And they were actually.
And I believe that it was
as a paratrooper, as a warrior.
It uplifted me to hear.
Me and somebody that came up behind.
Show alter advanced toward the fire
and we didn't go that far
before we ran into Morris and Coney.
And Morris looked like a pin cushion
and it looked like he.
Both of them did.
He would be hit at least
by individual weapons fire
and he'd be covered with
or other mines or things like that.
He was wounded.
I tried to get Charlie
and he was having no part of that.
And he said, "No,
I'm staying right here
until everybody else is gone."
Morris didn't want to go out.
Your adrenaline is going crazy,
your heart's pumping
is get there because.
You want to get there;
And I could hear,
I could hear some of the radio
and they were really in a point
where it was almost over for them.
Now, I know we were very low.
And the only ammo I had.
And then we were really.
And I was stacking dead bodies.
That was gonna be our final stand.
The guys that were wounded...
We all had grenades and very few rounds.
So the next time they hit,
we'd get as many of them as we could
and then use the grenades on ourselves.
But thank God we didn't have to.
The enemy react to what you do.
And that's what your job is as
is to communicate with
that makes them think that
you have more guns than they do
or you're badder than they are,
and they're gonna get.
The Vietcong, one of their
any time they felt that
they would immediately.
These guys were professional soldiers.
They weren't gonna stay
I didn't have a battalion,
So I figured the only way we're
is to make them think.
So I took my 20 to 30 guys
which is a very,
cause there was nobody behind them.
But I put them all on line.
I took the two M60 machine guns
so I could concentrate the fire
and we just move forward
like you see in the.
Move forward in a single
firing like hell with
and darn if it didn't do the trick.
The NVA or VC, the enemy,
than we were because generally the way
you tell how big a unit is,
A platoon usually has.
A company will have.
A battalion could have 18 to 20,
depending how broad it was,
just moving through a jungle area.
And I wanted them to think.
And obviously they did because.
We were just laying there waiting to
hit them one more time.
I could hear the steps
and I was kind of zeroed in on that.
And then all of a sudden
come out of the brush.
Damn good feeling.
When we finally got to third platoon,
the first person I saw was Mike St urges.
First platoon had made it into us.
The first guy out was Woody Davis.
And he looked up at me
and that's when I've
at that time where he was thinking,
"If I could just get up."
And then later we were
and he told me that he
and until he saw the top of my helmet,
he was gonna use those six.
He could hear me coming,
So that's when I said maybe.
"Thank God I didn't pull."
At the time, I didn't know Woody.
I know they just secured,
new medics got us patched up.
He got medevaced.
And the next time I saw him was at.
We were standing at one end of the bar
and this guy kept staring.
The reason I knew it was
fussing with his boot or.
And he looked up,
and I said, "Holy shit."
Yeah.
And then he just dropped his.
And he says, "You don't.
And I'm like, "No."
And he said, "I'm Woody."
He said, "I was the first."
And he said, "I'll never forget"
the look on your face of.
We've shared a lot of beers since then.
And then I realized that we were really.
There was riblets of blood in it.
Sorry.
And then we started seeing teeth.
And what I mean by that is
we started seeing gray faces smiling,
it was the third platoon.
First thing I saw when
was five bodies laying
I mean, it was just horrible.
The ground was moist, soggy, discoloured,
and I didn't realize it.
For a while it took me to
partially on top of one.
He was dead.
There was so much dirt,
I didn't even realize I was.
And that's where I spent.
It was just a really, really bad day,
especially for those guys.
When I got up to Morris and Cooney, there
that were either moaning
or there was somebody trying
and it was just a mess, it was carnage,
but the fighting was over.
That's when the realization
really just slapped.
God darn, it was...
One of my buddies that I
Carl Fishburne,
We were talking about and he said,
"Is that the night we."
Yeah.
Somebody was on the radio
calling for medevacs and stuff
so you couldn't land any choppers.
They cleared an
to drop a basket down.
I remember being loaded.
Some of the unique
that you normally don't think of
is our Chaplain, Conrad Walker.
When the battle took place,
When we eventually got our landing,
where we're gonna lift
and winch and things like that.
He carried just about
I joined him, but we carried
but he was with every one of them.
We called him our shepherd.
But all the people we
the Chaplain loaded them.
That helicopter had a spotlight.
I don't see how he could
but we threw smoke
and he put the gurney
and we'd load it and he'd pull it up
and all day until we.
The battle for most part is over now.
We got some sniper fire coming.
They haven't completely given up.
And while we're carrying
we'd bring the helicopter
but again, it would
and we would tie one of our
and they would just.
Not infrequently,
but a lot of times we'd.
And they'd just about drop the guy.
They'd say, "Well here",
And the Chaplin would say, "It's okay."
It's okay. Don't worry about it.
Just bring him on up here.
We'll get him on this helicopter.
So even under fire, he didn't move.
He was there. He was a rock.
For his action on that day,
he would get the Silver.
One brave guy.
I wasn't medevaced out.
They put me in a body bag
and then tied the rope
and lifted me out.
I don't know which was worse,
the firefight or dangling on
just knowing that there
and they were gonna open fire.
Then I saw a clearing
and there was a dust.
It felt like we were doing
but that pilot just
right next to the medevac and,
off I went.
It was really a relief to.
To know I was back on the.
I remember them working on me.
Sticking a large tube in my side
and I probably passed
or either they put me out.
Cause the next thing I,
at least another day,
And I never saw those guys again.
And that's sort of the nature
of what happens in a
you go to one hospital,
I ended up in Japan for 108 days
and that's why I have one picture of me
and that's because all my pictures
were in the base camp and.
None of my equipment ever
I enjoy coming here to these events
because it's important,
it's an opportunity to touch with people
because like I say, I have one picture.
And that's it.
So we got into their perimeter
and sent my medic over there
to start working on the wounded,
start assessing the wounded,
put men around it to secure the area
and started looking
and making sure everybody.
That's when I found Sergeant Morris.
He was laying on his back.
He looked dead to me.
If I had to bet, I'd say he was dead.
He had two sucking chest wounds.
I also noticed that his hands...
It's why I thought he was dead.
His hands were not moving.
In each thumb contained grenade pins.
He had thrown so many grenades
and had been wounded so many times
he didn't have the strength
to take the pins off his fingers.
His thumbs were filled.
So, I walked up to him and kicked him.
I kicked him in his feet,
kicked him in his boots just.
He opened his eyes...
He opened his eyes and he looked at me
and he put his arm up and saluted
and he says, "All the way, sir."
You could have knocked
when he did that.
So I went, "Holy shit."
And I started yelling for a medic.
This guy was above and
I remember that on the
when we were trying to
and get the rest of our killed out,
he was wounded and I went by him.
And the first platoon
and Lieutenant Vose had checked.
And I went by him and
and he was moving and.
How could he... bloodied,
he just looked like a sieve.
And I said, "Sergeant, are you okay?"
And I knelt beside him,
and he looked up at me and he reached up
and he grabbed me by the collar here.
And he'd yanked me down
and he said, "Captain."
He said, "I want you to
I said, "Sure."
He said, "Promise me you won't
until all the rest of the.
Please don't leave anybody behind.
Please sir, don't leave anybody behind."
And I said, being all knowledgeable,
being a captain and knowing everything,
I said, "Okay, Sergeant",
Cause see, I already.
This guy was just shot to pieces.
And we lifted him out last.
A year later, I received a call.
"The President of the United States."
Do you think you could come.
And I said, "Well",
And I went to Washington
and I saw the president
place around Charlie Morris
the Medal of Honour around his neck.
And I thought, as great as that was,
the thing I remember is not
but Morris saying, "Sir, please,
Take me out last."
My claim to fame in Vietnam.
And I would say, look up June 29th, 1966
and look up Charles B. Morris and realize
that I had the privilege of.
One of the things that
there is a horrendous.
You don't feel bad necessarily,
it's just that you're exhausted
because your adrenaline's
and so when it stops,
you just may pass out or.
I was exhausted
and I just remember laying down.
It was over.
I think that what happened
we had them surrounded or a
and that's when they ran.
They took off.
Or they didn't realize they
I think that was what it was.
It was A Company.
We ended up having a reputation.
They called us No DEROS Alpha.
That means that if you were
you very possibly didn't get to serve.
You left before your
one way or another.
My wounds weren't bad enough
to be evaced out of the country.
Got out of the hospital
and I think I was in the
and got hit again.
That was the last one.
I got out of there then.
I was reading the paper,
sitting at the kitchen table one morning
and realized I was reading an article
about a firefight that.
And then pretty soon there was a quote
by Captain Jack Kelley
who commanded this Company
that had been in this.
That was really scary, but I thought,
at least I'm reading.
So I know he made it through it.
I didn't enjoy the war.
I didn't join, I got drafted
and I was doing what a
was supposed to do.
Go and do what you're told.
That's why I went.
I wasn't looking for any kind of glory.
And do my part and get my ass back home.
When I got out of the service,
I pretty well just put it behind me.
I think it obviously had a.
I think I knew what I did not
and that was be a PFC.
When I came out of high school,
I probably would have not.
Family really couldn't have.
Once I was wounded and became eligible
to go under the Disability Act,
which pretty much paid for
I'm gonna take advantage.
So I went back, picked up.
You know, I'm blessed.
I've never had a single.
And I'd be in the hospital
and guys would wake up in
and I knew what was going on.
They were dreaming.
But I've talked to some therapists
and what they say is
are fortunate where they
that they can't pull it back out
and they said that might
I got out with a disability
and I ended up the first
that got out of school
and I wouldn't have done that.
I carried the guilt a long time
before I shared it with a
I still sleep in a chair;
That's where I sleep.
I didn't know if I was gonna be able
because I let this
for 52 weeks in a row.
And he knew what he was doing.
He's a clinical psychologist.
The guy was able to take
and play with them.
When he put them back,
they didn't have as big
before I talked to this guy.
So the things that bugged
for 45 years, they got a.
I went back in '99.
I was really a little apprehensive
because I didn't know what.
We were able to get
to the June 29th battle site,
which is now a rice paddy.
Totally cleared,
We weren't able to get out to it
because the flooding and
and we were done humping.
We went to visit the 3rd
and that's where they brought everybody.
Now, it's a North.
Upstairs were where the wards were.
That's where the museum is now.
And I could just feel the
and really getting nervous.
But we went in there and there
and Colonel and just one
that were running the museum.
And through our interpreters,
And it was really interesting
hearing their perspective of the war.
When we met this guy out there,
he had been a VC and he was now.
And we talked about the war, battles,
and I asked him if he
and he kind of looked at me like,
"You stupid American."
You fought a battle out here.
I lived here my whole life.
I fought battles out here.
He was very nice.
He wasn't arrogant.
We were able to meet up with
at a dinner and talked a lot more.
And one of them stated
to meet the Americans,
And he said something that
is that we were just all young men
doing what our countries told us to do.
And that really
rang true.
It was a great experience for me
because I let a lot of hatred go.
That was a very good catharsis.
Get rid of those old ghosts.
I've been back to Vietnam.
And I went back the first time
with an objective of trying to find
where I'd been hurt and.
It was just something in my
I was driven and it got in my.
And I wanted to go back
in 29th of June and in Silver City.
Jack Kelley had given me the maps
and that's what I had to work with
because we didn't have GPS back then
and it took me three trips.
What we all remember as the jungle
and the clay bottoms and all.
And then I had an urge to try
to get guys involved to do
because in the big city they got a lot
of opportunities Saigon,
But out in the country,
And so we got together and
that allowed some of these kids
during that same wet weather
rather than to shut down.
And we built a dormitory
so that kids that came from a distance
because school buses and transportation,
they're too poor for that.
We were able to build a really
that allowed kids from the country,
poor kids to come in.
Quick aside, you're not allowed
to name anything after.
But what we did do when
was we put Malcolm Berry,
and he was actually what I
and we put his name on the bridge.
And so if you go up the
not a plaque because they.
We had it engraved in a stone
but they put his name on the bridge,
and they put it on the side.
That's kind of cool.
After the war, I was constantly fighting
because of all the anti-war protestors
and sticking up for my brothers.
After a while, I was
because they were talking.
You just couldn't get away from it
so I just finally started
and didn't even tell.
I went on like that.
Then through the association
hooking up with the guys again
and feeling relaxed and at home
and kind of unloading everything
that you'd been stuffing for years,
it seemed like we had all done that.
We used to call them beers and.
A lot of bad memories from.
But I never got wounded or
I really didn't know if I wanted to go
and my wife finally convinced me,
she said, "Why don't you go?
She said, "It could be good for you."
And I did.
And I got in there
and I think it was the
and I walked in with my bags
and I could hear all.
It was very loud in there.
When I walked up to check in,
"Well, you can't check in right now
because the rooms are.
She said, "Just leave.
We'll get it to your room
and come to see me when you're done
and we'll give you a key at the desk."
And I walked into the bar and
and I grabbed it soon going to the bar.
And as luck would have it,
the guy who was next.
And I didn't know him at that point.
Well, I did, I knew him over there,
but when you don't see somebody.
So he was talking, he was drunk.
He looked at me and he said,
And I told him.
He said, "What company were you in?"
"A Company."
"What battalion?"
"2nd Battalion."
"Me too."
"So What platoon?"
I said, "Second."
"Ah, I was in first".
"So you must know Leo?"
"Yeah."
He said, Leo "French' Pellerin."
So anyway, we hit it off.
And a bunch of guys came
and I think it was
when I left the bar to go upstairs.
I had no idea where I.
But that was my first reunion
and I had so much fun in
that I said, "Yep, I got to keep going."
So since 1985, I've probably only missed
maybe four or five reunions.
I met James Miskel for the first time
in 50 years last night.
So I had a good conversation with him.
He told me I was actually
that was pulled out just because.
I just
love these guys.
Every one of them.
Some of them were, to be polite, jerks,
but most of those guys.
And you can tell Lieutenant Vose.
And like any group of soldiers,
you get the disputes and.
That stuff went away quick.
I think we had great.
And the troops would do anything.
When they carried me off there.
And I remember how they carried me off,
I didn't see the picture
I had been shot in the right side
and there was a big.
And I'd been shot in the chest
and there was a big.
And so when Jack gave me that picture,
I went out and had it blown
because it was just kind of cool
and I wouldn't have that.
All these guys
the names like Ferguson, or Ron Sedlack.
All these names are just stories.
And I think about the
and I think about the
and how things would.
I can't imagine.
I look at my family and my children,
just a stroke of luck I'm here.
Oh, I'm just very proud that I was able
the most highly decorated combat brigade.
I'm proud I got to be a part of that.
And the men that were in.
I think A Company was unique.
I know we had the highest casualty count
in the year that I was there,
We always did whatever.
And I'm very proud of what I did
and proud of all my brothers.
To the herd.
Through this journey,
I learned more about my dad
although I will never truly be able
to understand what he.
My father's only sibling died before.
But what I discovered through this.
After 50 years,
Mainly of remembrance.
First of all, the guys.
Lord help me not forget them.
For the guys who were
because of that, don't forget them.
For kids who will never know.
For the heroism that I saw on that day
and that I remember, don't forget that.
For His word that says,
But that a man would lay
I saw that.
I remember that.
We had been out on a search
and the battalion had called down
and told us to move to a
because they would have
move us back to a base area.
And from there we would launch into.
And as we were getting ready to go back,
and we're moving in a column of twos
cutting our way through the jungle.
And we had stopped.
And all the way back down the line,
each of the following three platoons
are broken out column.
And then about every hour,
and we'd stop and.
And each platoon would put
or the left flank to
in case the enemy slipped up on us.
I remember standing up.
And we began to move out.
And way back in the back,
his name was Fritz,
and he went up to squad.
"We've left the two guys back."
They haven't come back in,
And the squad leader just sort of
I mean, the troop is moving,
And he said, "Oh, it's okay,
They'll be here."
And so we moved.
And so after a while,
and went up to the next guy
and all this time we're still moving.
And finally the patrol leader
he says, "Sir",
And so we halted the column
and I went back to where
and we sent a fire team of five guys out
to see if they were still there.
And there they were about 50 yards out,
laying down on a trail protecting us
and we'd gone off and left them.
I turned to Fritz,
and there was the squad
and on either side of his collar.
He was a Sergeant.
And I took his stripes off of him
and I said, "You're relieved."
And I turned around and there was Fritz,
the guy who had alerted us,
and I reached down and pined the stripes.
"Fritz, you're a Sergeant."
And he did.
He had them dig deep that night,
had them check their grenades,
make sure everything was safe.
He would be killed on the 29th of June.
That's my father in 1966.
He survived two tours of Vietnam
and three helicopter crashes over there.
He commanded troops in combat
with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
He earned the Silver Star,
the Army's third highest hon our
the Distinguished Flying Cross
the Bronze Star for valour in combat,
which he earned seven times,
and the Purple Heart for.
That's me in 1966.
For most of my life, I really had.
Yes, I knew he had been in Vietnam,
I thought he had a desk job over there.
I suppose I was like a lot of.
You took what your.
He didn't talk about the war.
During a recent trip to the
I started asking him questions
and he agreed to tell me.
It seems like all my life
I was prone to something to.
At an early age I went to
in St. Petersburg, Florida,
and then for college.
As soon as I graduated,
in the Army, and then I was off.
And it seemed to me that
if I wanted to advance,
if I wanted to learn
about being an infantry officer,
about being an Army officer,
I needed to be where the battle was.
And I requested assignment to.
And that was all well and
and told my wife what I had done.
Then my husband came home
for Vietnam and he.
And I thought, I didn't know
volunteering for Vietnam or
I think maybe telling me he volunteered
was the craziest thing.
In fact, I remember very clearly
I wrote down on a piece of paper,
I promise I will not.
My dad invited me
to go to the 173rd
to meet some of the men
so I would have a better understanding
of what they experienced.
It had been 50 years
since they had been in Vietnam together.
I got out of high school in
I joined the Army.
I went down to a recruiter.
My dad was a career Marine.
My mom and dad had to sign off
when I got out of high school and,
I was drafted, I got my high
and my draft papers in the other
and I was off and running
I enlisted in the army
still in high school.
I'd always wanted to
and I wanted to become a
I had started working at
right out of high school and.
Was drafted about a year later.
I was graduating high
and a good friend of mine decided,
that we wanted to enter the military.
I joined shortly after high school.
It was a 4th of July.
I was out with some of the
and we weren't paying attention to
and we hit the back of the
and we locked our bumpers together.
So my dad said it'd be a good idea
to go and talk to him and apologize.
He sat me down at a.
We started talking and right
I'll never forget it.
It was a poster of a Golden.
I went home that night.
"So what'd you do today?
I said, "I did."
He said, "Where?"
I said, "United States Army."
I had a buddy that had agreed
to go in the military
cause we were both in the lottery
and he was a student.
And September when I got
I called him and he said,
My grades are good and I'm.
Well, I had my doubts about that.
Gus wasn't a good student.
But Gus got drafted and.
And when he came home for Christmas,
I was home from advanced infantry.
And Gus was having a hell of a time
cause that military school.
So he didn't go back to Fort Benning.
He committed suicide on.
And his funeral was on Monday
and I had to be back at Fort Jackson,
so I missed his funeral.
So I started my whole army career out
with one of the biggest traumas
you can imagine in your life.
Getting to Saigon when
was a really exciting experience,
but you didn't know what to expect.
And they ushered us into
and they put us in a circus tent.
The mortars hit the tent and
and there was a lot of.
So they got who was able.
We loaded buses and left Saigon,
40 or 50 miles an hour right.
And our first look at Saigon
was just by the lightning flashes.
There was a heavy storm.
Appropriate for us.
I got to A Company on March 15th, 1966.
The next morning I got up,
I was on my way to breakfast
and there was a couple of guys
listening to the firefight that.
That was my first experience
with even being associated
I can remember my response
to the Company armourer at the time.
I said, "I don't even."
And he said, "Just wait a."
Well, when I first got there,
They had a major engagement
while we were down in Tan Son Nhut
and they were coming
and got ambushed on a
I don't know how many were killed,
but many, many were wounded.
And so when we got up there,
When we first got in the Company area,
we heard some choppers coming
all the guys that had
started coming in and they.
And the looks on their faces,
Everybody looked like
and nobody talked or anything.
It was just pretty damn scary.
And then they came back and
and then I was the FNG.
Yeah, but it was an experience.
Great group of guys.
Made some of the best.
That was my first night in Vietnam
and I spent about probably
before it got daylight and I got up
and started looking around.
It was a desolate place.
All them old tents looked
but nobody lived in them but.
That's where we'd go get rested up
and take a shower and get our C-rations
and the brass would get the orders
and we'd load up and go out
and do another search and destroy.
That's about all we did.
The officers had their own officers club
and they kept their liquor.
We were coming back
and noticed that the hinges
were pinned on the outside of the door
with a padlock on the handle,
so we took the pins out,
went in and stole a whole box of liquor,
different bottles,
They never realized anything was gone,
so we did it again at.
The third time we went back,
the hinges were on the.
Now, that was fantastic.
That was probably the funniest
that we got away with the.
After about three weeks in the country,
for a week at a time or more
and spend a few days.
Your first patrol when
you're just nervous
what the hell you're looking for,
And you think any moment
you're gonna get ambushed and blown up.
Triple canopy was
but you heard every little bug, insect.
It was constant, you were soaking wet
all the time from sweat.
As time went on, the old guys
for a month or two would
and what you're doing and
that were gonna keep you alive.
You caught on quick.
It was a matter of life.
So I was on radio watch one night,
Sergeant Brown was over here,
I was next to him and
spread out a little bit.
And I heard this strange noise coming
and it was in the trees.
I couldn't figure out what it was.
And it got louder and it got.
So finally I woke up.
"Sergeant Brown, Sergeant Brown,
I don't know what it is."
And he looked at me and he said,
"It's monkeys, get under your poncho."
And so we rolled over under the poncho
I mean, it must've been
and they're crapping on you.
And finally they left and he said,
"Okay, you can come up now."
And we were just covered.
And I said, "Does this happen often?"
He said, "Yeah, every once in a while
you'll get stuck with it."
And he said, "They just
and they're extremely noisy."
And it was a little bit terrifying to me
because I had no clue what.
You moved along in areas hopefully
where you had a lot of cover.
Many movies depict infantry
and moving across open fields.
We did our best to never do that
unless there was no other way to do it.
Sometimes you had to
and unless you wanted to spend
you had to go across it.
You tried to avoid any trails
and that's when you really
for trip wires or pits.
Most of the patrols were very slow.
If they weren't slow,
The reason they were slow is.
You had to put out flank security,
security in the rear.
You had maybe a couple of point men
that would go ahead and
and look for enemy and.
Whenever the point man
he would stop and you'd investigate it.
And sometimes you get yelled.
"Move it up, move it up, move it up."
And to your people.
"Yeah, you're not down here."
You move as fast as you safely can.
We seem to just hit a lot.
There was always
guys leaving and new guys coming in.
Young kids, we were all 18, 19 years old
and you got very close.
Tried not to 'cause you didn't
cause it'd hurt when they got killed
but you couldn't help but make friends.
It wasn't about communism;
It was about being airborne infantry.
I was an enlisted forward observer.
It was just an adventure
and I was having a good old time.
And then when you get in a fight,
I don't think the reality of war
had really struck any of us.
All our middle names were John Wayne
and we were gonna end all this crap.
And that lasted until that.
Then reality did strike.
And the orders came
we were gonna leave out
I passed it down to my platoon leaders,
"Once we're there, I want each
I want the first platoon
I want the second platoon
I want the third platoon to remain
and then I'm gonna keep
under Lieutenant Vendetti.
Once battalion clears us,
I want each of you three platoon leaders
to start moving to the west
to see if you can find.
The battalion commander
a thousand meters apart.
It's gonna be a problem later on.
If we're a thousand meters apart
and each company was doing that as well,
we would cover more area.
We would have a chance to screen out
to make sure we didn't.
Did you want your platoons
to be a thousand meters apart?
No.
We never did it again.
June 28th, we had come to this area,
we'd been moving around
and we came to this area.
Now, my platoon was set up on a ridge.
There was a valley, there was.
It went into a village and a road
and there was a road that came.
And when we got off the helicopter,
it was dry next to a
where we were supposed
and it was supposed to
before we made the charge on the 29th.
But when we got in the rubber trees
and we got comfortable
and got ready for the rain,
some of the second platoon.
They had been in a mess
and they were worn out
and they did a lot of stuff.
So they told us to go
and they were gonna take our position
and rest up in the perimeter.
So that kind of pissed everybody off.
And I had just gotten my tent set up
and I couldn't wait to get my boots off
and get in there and
before I had to do guard duty.
And they came up and I.
"Now this is my place and it's
put you own up but
with them muddy boots.
We had had lots of villagers
cause there was this trail.
And they weren't armed.
And I remember seeing pieces
of white tape on some of the bike tires,
which we at the time.
Cause I learned this later going back,
this is how they did it.
Count the number of revolutions of
the tire multiplied times the
and you've got the distance.
A rough distance from where you've got.
Right when the sun was breaking,
we received two mortars,
I don't think it was one,
right in our lines.
It a killed Jesse Felder.
And all we heard was the bloop,
It was a mad rush to get our dead
cause I helped carry Felder
and his arm fell out, hit me on the leg.
I went on the LP and I was out.
It never occurred to me
to where we were until we went back in
the morning of the 29th.
It was my hammock that the
and Felder died from the mortar blast.
And that's where I'd have been
if they hadn't taken our position.
If they'd have been on LP,
I would have been there.
So I had that to think
we got on the chopper that day.
And I remember us
going to another area,
and then being split up into platoons.
I met some Lrps,
that were there because they briefed me
and they told me they'd
and they hadn't seen a thing.
Now, knowing now what I know now,
how they didn't see.
I don't know how they did it
because there was a whole large.
He said, we've been out
and it's pretty quiet.
And as he was getting on the chopper.
He said, "Oh, by the way," he said,
"There's an old path over there
and there's some footprints.
We couldn't find the end of it."
And he said, "Oh yeah, one more thing.
There's some commo wire out there."
And he said, "We never.
And all of a sudden I'm like, "Hmm."
It had rained for two days previously,
and so we started out
I believe, four groups,
but I was part of third platoon
and we were probably out for
I use the word stumbled,
Vietcong battalion base camp.
We had come across some trails
and it was pretty muddy and.
The front squad had noticed
a latrine
that would be used for a larger element.
We were getting ready to
and the firing started.
Don't remember exactly,
but maybe four or five shots.
And then shortly after that,
It was horrendous gun fire.
And they just opened up on.
Small arms, machine guns,
pretty much wiped out the.
The first time we knew that
was not because of radio
we could hear it.
And then the communications
and the platoon began to
and it was a large force
and within 30 or 40 minutes.
They were in deep trouble.
Sergeant Morris came back
and I believe he was wounded
and told us to dig in the best we could.
I remember trying to dig
but it kept filling with water.
From then on, the firing.
That's the thing I remember the most.
The sound of the 50 calibres.
Even the trees falling.
I was probably.
They shot the two guys on point
and people were hit left and right.
And there was an ant hill.
And I laid down behind that thing.
I think that cord will probably.
And he had it stretched
as far as it would go and standing up,
talking on the radio.
Next time the fire came, it hit him.
And I remember turning around
and his rifle was slung on his shoulder.
And it looked like to me
and his arm was hanging on.
We heard gunfire; It was quick.
It was very fast.
It was (mimicking gun.
And right away I knew from
that that's not a good thing
cause then you know what's coming next.
And then all of a sudden.
And they were calling for.
"We're surrounded, we need help."
And Captain Kelley was on
he just told all of us,
"Everybody now,
We're all gonna kind of converge
and see what we can do to
that was in so much trouble.
We just moved out.
We'd never run that fast
with rucksacks on our.
And when we got close
had us drop our rucksacks.
And I have no idea who it was.
He said, told somebody.
To guard them.
And at the time I thought,
"God, I wish that would have been me."
Later I'm sort of glad,
who would want to be left out
I'm so glad it wasn't me.
You'd see a grenade come
and come in and you'd.
The mortar rounds were worse,
and then you just had to wait and try
and hear it come through the trees.
The enemy actually.
This was a battalion size unit
against this platoon of 30 or 40 guys.
To this day,
the gunpowder smell, the smoke.
Everywhere you looked,
bodies, the wounded.
Some of the guys that took some hits
that were probably really
and, unfortunately, that just drew fire
and most of those ended
just because of that.
There's two things that.
One was, "Medic," and the other was...
There were several that would say,
I distinctly remember tracer rounds
hitting between myself and the M60.
At that point I was hit
in front of us and stunned me.
And I went the rest of the.
Then we came across some.
We thought that'd be a good place to be.
And as soon as we got close to them,
they really opened up on us.
They had that whole area covered.
We moved back and at that time
I knew I was in trouble
just 'cause I couldn't get my breath
and I could hear the.
So I had something...
My lung was opened up.
Luckily it was just one.
There was a big termite mound,
probably a four foot in diameter
by three foot high dirt mound.
And I started pulling.
Hido and Fritz, they were the first two
and they were pretty shot up.
Fritz was just bleeding out.
There wasn't much I could
he was missing an arm.
I tried to get that stopped.
"It's getting so dark in here,
And I kept trying to get
and he just bled out.
I was in a position where I
that was happening and
I had my radio and then I made contact
with the artillery folks and
that lasted about 10 minutes,
putting in some test rounds
to sort of get a bearing.
And my estimate was, they were.
So I told them to drop a hundred
and they got in a discussion with me
and I found out later
had done a couple of
but they got in a discussion with me
about whether that would be too close.
And at the time, this horrific fight
and my response to him was,
"We're on the point of being overrun,
drop a hundred and fire,
And then they tried to overrun us.
They first opened up
and then the 50s and fired.
One of the rockets landed right
in the middle of us.
I remember an arm flying by me.
Then that's when they really opened up.
Fortunately, we were able to repel that.
Someone said, "Why isn't."
And I said, "It's because.
He said, "Bring the radio over."
And so it was about 40, 50, 60 feet.
And so I left.
By that time, my M16 was jammed.
So I was in between.
And I actually left the
and I went across this area.
They had deep bunkers,
overhead cover that they had built in,
trenches going from position to position
so they could move about and fire.
I remember that several of my guys
reported that they had,
they had cut out through the brush
so that they could fire through that
and they still had protection
and camouflage so that.
And I took the radio
and first thing he said before
he says, "Where's your rifle?"
I said, "Back jammed behind the tree."
Then he said, "Okay."
He said, "You leave the radio here"
and you get back and put that.
So I went back and I
but I was in a process
when I got shot the first time.
Then we were getting low on ammo.
So I was crawling up front,
and taking the ammo off the dead guys.
Also,
taking
battle dressings off of them,
because we were all out of those
and the wounded guys needed.
First time I get shot, I got shot in
all I was doing, I couldn't breathe.
It was like blood in and blood out.
That was the time that I.
Next thing I remember is James Miskel
on the other side of the M60.
He pulled the plastic wrap.
He packed the wound with gauze
or whatever was available
and he put the plastic over that
and then wrapped it tightly.
When I had been hit,
I was having a lot of trouble breathing
cause both bullets had
and both had hit ribs.
And then all of a sudden I had.
And I did what 50% of the people did.
I called for the medic
and someone, I don't know who,
And we were out of morphine
and the medic had been killed
and there was none left in his bag.
So I went up farther up
and that's where Charlie
and some of the other guys were.
And what had happened
in this right-hand pocket
and I had been hit
and when I pulled the compass out first,
it was all gnarled where.
And then the bullet came out up above.
And I had this big
where the bullet came out.
But what it had been,
and the only way I can describe it
is if you take a baseball bat
and just hit someone in the chest.
That's how it felt.
And the bullet went out.
It was deflected, I believe,
by the compass because the
I dropped the compass.
It would have been the
but that's what you do.
And I dropped the compass.
And I thought everything.
And I didn't have the rifle
but then right after that,
and then I got shot twice in the back.
I was out of it for a little bit,
but I do remember being
pretty much the rest of the time,
and getting weaker as the time went on.
Remember being very low or out of ammo.
It was real apparent that
and that I needed to get out of there.
And there were two
two black guys that were.
And they said, "Why don't
come over here?"
And I can remember,
and it wasn't the brightest
but I asked him something like,
And they said, "Get the F over here."
So I crawled over there
I couldn't stand up any more.
And that's where I spent.
As we were moving towards them,
And we were getting very close to them
and then there was a
I couldn't tell you how many
and they started shooting at us.
And one of them was blind from
and one of them had been
and of one of them's name was Leon Exum.
The other one,
And all we had left, they had.
There was an M79 grenade launcher.
So the three of us in kind
put that M79 into play.
And I had been shot in the right side
but I can put my arm up like that.
The guy that was blind actually propped
the M79 grenade launcher on my elbow.
And the guy who had been
who owned the M79,
he actually gave the guidance
and we would pop off a round.
We did this until we.
What I do know is the Vietcong,
they have the same routine
because we were causing some damage
because after the rounds would go off,
There was a small gully
as long as we didn't stand up,
we could crouch down and move along.
And when we got toward
where we could get out of it,
everybody checked their self,
got ready to go.
And that's when John.
He went up out of the ravine
and as soon as he got both
he got killed.
Shot in the neck.
When the third platoon initially
it was because their
some enemy latrines and.
The point squad was led by.
He immediately found it,
told him the enemy was there.
No sooner had they reported that,
and eventually they got surrounded.
But Morris again took his squad,
He found the enemy was firing at him.
He and two other guys moved out behind
from where they were and.
Later on, the enemy put a 50 calibre
and tried to put it in.
He and another guy,
The other guy was killed in action,
I remember him coming back to us
and I'm fairly certain he was,
but he was probably seriously
and he spent most of his time at that...
From that point forward,
he spent most of his time
working with that group,
although he continually made rounds,
made sure everybody was okay.
Assigning firing lanes.
Making sure everybody had areas covered.
But Morris was, he was an.
He was an infantryman
and intended to do everything
to make the mission work.
He was that kind of guy.
I can remember Charlie
at the Vietcong saying,
"Come on, I've only got one good."
And they were actually.
And I believe that it was
as a paratrooper, as a warrior.
It uplifted me to hear.
Me and somebody that came up behind.
Show alter advanced toward the fire
and we didn't go that far
before we ran into Morris and Coney.
And Morris looked like a pin cushion
and it looked like he.
Both of them did.
He would be hit at least
by individual weapons fire
and he'd be covered with
or other mines or things like that.
He was wounded.
I tried to get Charlie
and he was having no part of that.
And he said, "No,
I'm staying right here
until everybody else is gone."
Morris didn't want to go out.
Your adrenaline is going crazy,
your heart's pumping
is get there because.
You want to get there;
And I could hear,
I could hear some of the radio
and they were really in a point
where it was almost over for them.
Now, I know we were very low.
And the only ammo I had.
And then we were really.
And I was stacking dead bodies.
That was gonna be our final stand.
The guys that were wounded...
We all had grenades and very few rounds.
So the next time they hit,
we'd get as many of them as we could
and then use the grenades on ourselves.
But thank God we didn't have to.
The enemy react to what you do.
And that's what your job is as
is to communicate with
that makes them think that
you have more guns than they do
or you're badder than they are,
and they're gonna get.
The Vietcong, one of their
any time they felt that
they would immediately.
These guys were professional soldiers.
They weren't gonna stay
I didn't have a battalion,
So I figured the only way we're
is to make them think.
So I took my 20 to 30 guys
which is a very,
cause there was nobody behind them.
But I put them all on line.
I took the two M60 machine guns
so I could concentrate the fire
and we just move forward
like you see in the.
Move forward in a single
firing like hell with
and darn if it didn't do the trick.
The NVA or VC, the enemy,
than we were because generally the way
you tell how big a unit is,
A platoon usually has.
A company will have.
A battalion could have 18 to 20,
depending how broad it was,
just moving through a jungle area.
And I wanted them to think.
And obviously they did because.
We were just laying there waiting to
hit them one more time.
I could hear the steps
and I was kind of zeroed in on that.
And then all of a sudden
come out of the brush.
Damn good feeling.
When we finally got to third platoon,
the first person I saw was Mike St urges.
First platoon had made it into us.
The first guy out was Woody Davis.
And he looked up at me
and that's when I've
at that time where he was thinking,
"If I could just get up."
And then later we were
and he told me that he
and until he saw the top of my helmet,
he was gonna use those six.
He could hear me coming,
So that's when I said maybe.
"Thank God I didn't pull."
At the time, I didn't know Woody.
I know they just secured,
new medics got us patched up.
He got medevaced.
And the next time I saw him was at.
We were standing at one end of the bar
and this guy kept staring.
The reason I knew it was
fussing with his boot or.
And he looked up,
and I said, "Holy shit."
Yeah.
And then he just dropped his.
And he says, "You don't.
And I'm like, "No."
And he said, "I'm Woody."
He said, "I was the first."
And he said, "I'll never forget"
the look on your face of.
We've shared a lot of beers since then.
And then I realized that we were really.
There was riblets of blood in it.
Sorry.
And then we started seeing teeth.
And what I mean by that is
we started seeing gray faces smiling,
it was the third platoon.
First thing I saw when
was five bodies laying
I mean, it was just horrible.
The ground was moist, soggy, discoloured,
and I didn't realize it.
For a while it took me to
partially on top of one.
He was dead.
There was so much dirt,
I didn't even realize I was.
And that's where I spent.
It was just a really, really bad day,
especially for those guys.
When I got up to Morris and Cooney, there
that were either moaning
or there was somebody trying
and it was just a mess, it was carnage,
but the fighting was over.
That's when the realization
really just slapped.
God darn, it was...
One of my buddies that I
Carl Fishburne,
We were talking about and he said,
"Is that the night we."
Yeah.
Somebody was on the radio
calling for medevacs and stuff
so you couldn't land any choppers.
They cleared an
to drop a basket down.
I remember being loaded.
Some of the unique
that you normally don't think of
is our Chaplain, Conrad Walker.
When the battle took place,
When we eventually got our landing,
where we're gonna lift
and winch and things like that.
He carried just about
I joined him, but we carried
but he was with every one of them.
We called him our shepherd.
But all the people we
the Chaplain loaded them.
That helicopter had a spotlight.
I don't see how he could
but we threw smoke
and he put the gurney
and we'd load it and he'd pull it up
and all day until we.
The battle for most part is over now.
We got some sniper fire coming.
They haven't completely given up.
And while we're carrying
we'd bring the helicopter
but again, it would
and we would tie one of our
and they would just.
Not infrequently,
but a lot of times we'd.
And they'd just about drop the guy.
They'd say, "Well here",
And the Chaplin would say, "It's okay."
It's okay. Don't worry about it.
Just bring him on up here.
We'll get him on this helicopter.
So even under fire, he didn't move.
He was there. He was a rock.
For his action on that day,
he would get the Silver.
One brave guy.
I wasn't medevaced out.
They put me in a body bag
and then tied the rope
and lifted me out.
I don't know which was worse,
the firefight or dangling on
just knowing that there
and they were gonna open fire.
Then I saw a clearing
and there was a dust.
It felt like we were doing
but that pilot just
right next to the medevac and,
off I went.
It was really a relief to.
To know I was back on the.
I remember them working on me.
Sticking a large tube in my side
and I probably passed
or either they put me out.
Cause the next thing I,
at least another day,
And I never saw those guys again.
And that's sort of the nature
of what happens in a
you go to one hospital,
I ended up in Japan for 108 days
and that's why I have one picture of me
and that's because all my pictures
were in the base camp and.
None of my equipment ever
I enjoy coming here to these events
because it's important,
it's an opportunity to touch with people
because like I say, I have one picture.
And that's it.
So we got into their perimeter
and sent my medic over there
to start working on the wounded,
start assessing the wounded,
put men around it to secure the area
and started looking
and making sure everybody.
That's when I found Sergeant Morris.
He was laying on his back.
He looked dead to me.
If I had to bet, I'd say he was dead.
He had two sucking chest wounds.
I also noticed that his hands...
It's why I thought he was dead.
His hands were not moving.
In each thumb contained grenade pins.
He had thrown so many grenades
and had been wounded so many times
he didn't have the strength
to take the pins off his fingers.
His thumbs were filled.
So, I walked up to him and kicked him.
I kicked him in his feet,
kicked him in his boots just.
He opened his eyes...
He opened his eyes and he looked at me
and he put his arm up and saluted
and he says, "All the way, sir."
You could have knocked
when he did that.
So I went, "Holy shit."
And I started yelling for a medic.
This guy was above and
I remember that on the
when we were trying to
and get the rest of our killed out,
he was wounded and I went by him.
And the first platoon
and Lieutenant Vose had checked.
And I went by him and
and he was moving and.
How could he... bloodied,
he just looked like a sieve.
And I said, "Sergeant, are you okay?"
And I knelt beside him,
and he looked up at me and he reached up
and he grabbed me by the collar here.
And he'd yanked me down
and he said, "Captain."
He said, "I want you to
I said, "Sure."
He said, "Promise me you won't
until all the rest of the.
Please don't leave anybody behind.
Please sir, don't leave anybody behind."
And I said, being all knowledgeable,
being a captain and knowing everything,
I said, "Okay, Sergeant",
Cause see, I already.
This guy was just shot to pieces.
And we lifted him out last.
A year later, I received a call.
"The President of the United States."
Do you think you could come.
And I said, "Well",
And I went to Washington
and I saw the president
place around Charlie Morris
the Medal of Honour around his neck.
And I thought, as great as that was,
the thing I remember is not
but Morris saying, "Sir, please,
Take me out last."
My claim to fame in Vietnam.
And I would say, look up June 29th, 1966
and look up Charles B. Morris and realize
that I had the privilege of.
One of the things that
there is a horrendous.
You don't feel bad necessarily,
it's just that you're exhausted
because your adrenaline's
and so when it stops,
you just may pass out or.
I was exhausted
and I just remember laying down.
It was over.
I think that what happened
we had them surrounded or a
and that's when they ran.
They took off.
Or they didn't realize they
I think that was what it was.
It was A Company.
We ended up having a reputation.
They called us No DEROS Alpha.
That means that if you were
you very possibly didn't get to serve.
You left before your
one way or another.
My wounds weren't bad enough
to be evaced out of the country.
Got out of the hospital
and I think I was in the
and got hit again.
That was the last one.
I got out of there then.
I was reading the paper,
sitting at the kitchen table one morning
and realized I was reading an article
about a firefight that.
And then pretty soon there was a quote
by Captain Jack Kelley
who commanded this Company
that had been in this.
That was really scary, but I thought,
at least I'm reading.
So I know he made it through it.
I didn't enjoy the war.
I didn't join, I got drafted
and I was doing what a
was supposed to do.
Go and do what you're told.
That's why I went.
I wasn't looking for any kind of glory.
And do my part and get my ass back home.
When I got out of the service,
I pretty well just put it behind me.
I think it obviously had a.
I think I knew what I did not
and that was be a PFC.
When I came out of high school,
I probably would have not.
Family really couldn't have.
Once I was wounded and became eligible
to go under the Disability Act,
which pretty much paid for
I'm gonna take advantage.
So I went back, picked up.
You know, I'm blessed.
I've never had a single.
And I'd be in the hospital
and guys would wake up in
and I knew what was going on.
They were dreaming.
But I've talked to some therapists
and what they say is
are fortunate where they
that they can't pull it back out
and they said that might
I got out with a disability
and I ended up the first
that got out of school
and I wouldn't have done that.
I carried the guilt a long time
before I shared it with a
I still sleep in a chair;
That's where I sleep.
I didn't know if I was gonna be able
because I let this
for 52 weeks in a row.
And he knew what he was doing.
He's a clinical psychologist.
The guy was able to take
and play with them.
When he put them back,
they didn't have as big
before I talked to this guy.
So the things that bugged
for 45 years, they got a.
I went back in '99.
I was really a little apprehensive
because I didn't know what.
We were able to get
to the June 29th battle site,
which is now a rice paddy.
Totally cleared,
We weren't able to get out to it
because the flooding and
and we were done humping.
We went to visit the 3rd
and that's where they brought everybody.
Now, it's a North.
Upstairs were where the wards were.
That's where the museum is now.
And I could just feel the
and really getting nervous.
But we went in there and there
and Colonel and just one
that were running the museum.
And through our interpreters,
And it was really interesting
hearing their perspective of the war.
When we met this guy out there,
he had been a VC and he was now.
And we talked about the war, battles,
and I asked him if he
and he kind of looked at me like,
"You stupid American."
You fought a battle out here.
I lived here my whole life.
I fought battles out here.
He was very nice.
He wasn't arrogant.
We were able to meet up with
at a dinner and talked a lot more.
And one of them stated
to meet the Americans,
And he said something that
is that we were just all young men
doing what our countries told us to do.
And that really
rang true.
It was a great experience for me
because I let a lot of hatred go.
That was a very good catharsis.
Get rid of those old ghosts.
I've been back to Vietnam.
And I went back the first time
with an objective of trying to find
where I'd been hurt and.
It was just something in my
I was driven and it got in my.
And I wanted to go back
in 29th of June and in Silver City.
Jack Kelley had given me the maps
and that's what I had to work with
because we didn't have GPS back then
and it took me three trips.
What we all remember as the jungle
and the clay bottoms and all.
And then I had an urge to try
to get guys involved to do
because in the big city they got a lot
of opportunities Saigon,
But out in the country,
And so we got together and
that allowed some of these kids
during that same wet weather
rather than to shut down.
And we built a dormitory
so that kids that came from a distance
because school buses and transportation,
they're too poor for that.
We were able to build a really
that allowed kids from the country,
poor kids to come in.
Quick aside, you're not allowed
to name anything after.
But what we did do when
was we put Malcolm Berry,
and he was actually what I
and we put his name on the bridge.
And so if you go up the
not a plaque because they.
We had it engraved in a stone
but they put his name on the bridge,
and they put it on the side.
That's kind of cool.
After the war, I was constantly fighting
because of all the anti-war protestors
and sticking up for my brothers.
After a while, I was
because they were talking.
You just couldn't get away from it
so I just finally started
and didn't even tell.
I went on like that.
Then through the association
hooking up with the guys again
and feeling relaxed and at home
and kind of unloading everything
that you'd been stuffing for years,
it seemed like we had all done that.
We used to call them beers and.
A lot of bad memories from.
But I never got wounded or
I really didn't know if I wanted to go
and my wife finally convinced me,
she said, "Why don't you go?
She said, "It could be good for you."
And I did.
And I got in there
and I think it was the
and I walked in with my bags
and I could hear all.
It was very loud in there.
When I walked up to check in,
"Well, you can't check in right now
because the rooms are.
She said, "Just leave.
We'll get it to your room
and come to see me when you're done
and we'll give you a key at the desk."
And I walked into the bar and
and I grabbed it soon going to the bar.
And as luck would have it,
the guy who was next.
And I didn't know him at that point.
Well, I did, I knew him over there,
but when you don't see somebody.
So he was talking, he was drunk.
He looked at me and he said,
And I told him.
He said, "What company were you in?"
"A Company."
"What battalion?"
"2nd Battalion."
"Me too."
"So What platoon?"
I said, "Second."
"Ah, I was in first".
"So you must know Leo?"
"Yeah."
He said, Leo "French' Pellerin."
So anyway, we hit it off.
And a bunch of guys came
and I think it was
when I left the bar to go upstairs.
I had no idea where I.
But that was my first reunion
and I had so much fun in
that I said, "Yep, I got to keep going."
So since 1985, I've probably only missed
maybe four or five reunions.
I met James Miskel for the first time
in 50 years last night.
So I had a good conversation with him.
He told me I was actually
that was pulled out just because.
I just
love these guys.
Every one of them.
Some of them were, to be polite, jerks,
but most of those guys.
And you can tell Lieutenant Vose.
And like any group of soldiers,
you get the disputes and.
That stuff went away quick.
I think we had great.
And the troops would do anything.
When they carried me off there.
And I remember how they carried me off,
I didn't see the picture
I had been shot in the right side
and there was a big.
And I'd been shot in the chest
and there was a big.
And so when Jack gave me that picture,
I went out and had it blown
because it was just kind of cool
and I wouldn't have that.
All these guys
the names like Ferguson, or Ron Sedlack.
All these names are just stories.
And I think about the
and I think about the
and how things would.
I can't imagine.
I look at my family and my children,
just a stroke of luck I'm here.
Oh, I'm just very proud that I was able
the most highly decorated combat brigade.
I'm proud I got to be a part of that.
And the men that were in.
I think A Company was unique.
I know we had the highest casualty count
in the year that I was there,
We always did whatever.
And I'm very proud of what I did
and proud of all my brothers.
To the herd.
Through this journey,
I learned more about my dad
although I will never truly be able
to understand what he.
My father's only sibling died before.
But what I discovered through this.
After 50 years,
Mainly of remembrance.
First of all, the guys.
Lord help me not forget them.
For the guys who were
because of that, don't forget them.
For kids who will never know.
For the heroism that I saw on that day
and that I remember, don't forget that.
For His word that says,
But that a man would lay
I saw that.
I remember that.