Ed Hogan, Wally Turner & I were really tight. With these 2 guys around me I was
sure nothing could ever happen to any of us. Wally had gone home a month before we
went to Tam KY. When I got back in touch with Wally last year it was the 1st he had
heard that Ed had died. He asked me to write him about the details of what happen to
Ed & the rest of 2nd Plt that day. This is the letter I sent him.
Dear Wally,
Hi!
This is Ed's story that I promised you. Sorry it took so long, but it was hard writing it.
ED'S STORY:
May 21, 1969 was the 5th day in the field since coming south to Tam Ky. Up till then, the only contact was on the first night when there was a mortar attack at the airfield. We had dug in right off the runway. There was a tank trench 40 feet behind our fighting position. Sgt Shake-n-Bake, our squad leader, had told us to use it to sleep in. Ed & I had the guys dig sleeping holes closer to the fighting position 'cause we didn't like the trench. Later that night a round exploded in the trench.
Back to the 21st. As we were packing our rucks, word came down that Recon "E Company" had taken out a .51 caliber machine gun & taken some losses. 1st & 2nd Platoon were to join up with Recon, 3rd Platoon would stay with the gear. We moved out light. Recon was about a click away. Just before we hooked up with Recon we could see a rice paddy on the right.
A little about the terrain, it wasn't like the paddies up north, everything was overgrown, almost like the jungle. There were little valleys with old rice paddies as well as low hills. It was spooky.
When we joined up with Recon we found they had taken some losses. They had taken out the machine gun with grenades. The machine gun was in a pit set up as an antiaircraft gun. Recon had killed a number of NVA but a few had gotten away on a dyke. The dyke crossed over the rice paddy & led to a finger of land, which backtracked the way we had come. The dyke was wide, around 5ft wide, and about 6 ft above the rice paddy. It ran for about 75 yards.
A squad from 1st Platoon stayed with Recon. The rest of 1st platoon backtracked the way we had come, to cross where the rice paddy ended, & come back up the finger of land on the other side of the paddy.
Right over the dyke the jungle closed in on you. You could only see about 10ft tops. We got in about 30-35 meters & Ed stopped me. He indicated that we were alone. The platoon was not behind us. We decided to go on a little bit & see if they showed up. We moved on until we came to a stonewall, it was about 4ft high. There was no telling how long it was because of the vegetation. We squatted by the wall trying to figure out what to do next. We didn't have to figure for long. All hell broke loose from the other side of the wall. Bullets were hitting the wall at our back, zipping over it. Tree branches were falling on us. I thought about throwing a grenade over the wall but I was concerned about the location of Sgt Rios & the rest of 2nd Platoon. All we knew was there was more fire coming at us than a couple of gooks could put out. We got the hell out of there, moving low, leap frogging out, first Ed then me, all the way out to the dyke. Our squad was there, plus some other guys from 2nd Platoon. (Big Mike, Cherry Jones, 1 or 2 others.) I had no idea what they were doing there or where the rest of 2nd platoon was. I had no idea why the platoon had not followed us in. If I ever did find out I've forgotten.
Ed got into Sgt. Shake-n-Bake's face for not backing us up. Sgt. Shake-n-Bake was in line behind Ed when we went in. Everyone heard the shooting & I think they knew something bad had gone down with the rest of 2nd Platoon, but not what. After Ed & I told what we knew, Shake-n-Bake said he was going in on the trail to have a look see. I told him it was "...stupid to go in there now.! We don't have a clue what's going on. 1st Platoon's coming in from the right, we could be shooting each other up, I've seen it happen. Besides which you can't see in there." Anyway, Shake-n-Bake went in.
Out of nowhere Ed said I'm going with him & something sarcastic like "Someone's got to hold his hand." That's not it, but something like that. I grabbed Ed's arm & said don't go with that fool Ed, he'll get you killed. Ed gave me his shit eating grin & went in after Shake-n-Bake. We heard a burst of fire a couple of minutes after they left. I have no memory of Ed calling to me. But everyone that was there said they heard him call & that I responded. I do remember telling KC to give me his grenades & to get the squad down into the rice paddy. There was a 4ft bank from the ground down to the paddy.
I left him there & crawled back out to the paddy. There were more guys than when we went in, some from 1st platoon & some from the missing part of 2nd platoon, most of them wounded. KC was holding a bandage to a guy that was shot in the neck. I think the guy died. We were still under fire, but down in the paddy there was cover. Someone said Sgt Rios was dead. I think everyone from 2nd Platoon that went with Sgt Rios was either killed or wounded. (8-9 dead) The gooks were in the trees. I was told they shot Sgt Rios first. The story was that a new guy killed the gook that shot Sgt Rios with a shotgun blast from his M-79 just before he himself was killed.
There were guys from 1st Platoon here as well. They had gotten shot up too. (2 or 3 killed, more wounded) Some of the wounded got back over the dyke with no trouble. One GI came running across the dyke to us & blew up. I think it was an RPG. More guys tried. I yelled to get down "go back!" Another guy fell. I could see the dirt kick up all around him as he fell. The rest of the grunts on the other side of the dyke took cover.
We were trapped. No artillery, no air strikes. We were too close to the enemy. The radio was with Sgt Rios. There was no shade down in the paddy. The bank gave us cover. But if you moved too far from it you would get shot at. We were there for hours, the water went fast, the sun roasted us. Sgt Sheridan, who used to be in 2nd Platoon, now Platoon Sgt of the 1st Platoon, crossed the rice paddy to bring us a radio. He stayed low & close to the dyke.
B & C company, who had caught their own shit earlier that day, were there as well. One came in from the left, but couldn't cross the rice paddy because of heavy fire. They reported seeing what looked like a wounded GI in the weeds in the overgrown rice paddy. I thought it was Ed. I went around left, using the bank as cover, until I could see our men on the other side. I was calling "Ed" & yelling at them "Where is the GI you saw?" I spent an hour looking & calling for Ed. They must have thought I was nuts. I found nothing.
The other company hooked up with Recon & formed a perimeter on the other side of the dyke. Later in the day we were able to pull back to Recon. We were given water. We hadn't had any for most of the day other than for small sips from the muddy rice paddy itself. We were in bad shape. Up until this point I still had hopes of finding Ed alive. I was sitting by the wounded, smoking, when someone told me I had been shot. I said "Bullshit! I'd know if I had been shot!" He pointed at my side, there was a hole in my fatigues & some blood. I had a welt about 5' long from my upper hip to my butt. It was more like a burn. A Medic bandaged it up. There were a lot of wounded around. I remember looking at a guy who's chest was all bandaged up. He was smoking a cigarette, & smoke was drifting up around the edges of the bandages. Some of the guys that were in the paddy were medivaced out because of heat exhaustion.
Now it was getting dark. I was walking around hoping someone would notice my bandages & send me to the rear, when Sgt Sheridan told me I was needed & that I was in charge of the 2nd Platoon now. I guess he didn't see my bandages. We were going back to get 3rd Platoon & our gear. We were to come back in the morning. B & C company formed a perimeter with Recon. We were fired on twice, with automatic weapons, as we went back to get our gear. We didn't stop. We just kept moving. Once we got back to our gear someone got a bottle out of his pack. It had arrived in a care package from home that same morning. We held a service for our dead. We would take a drink, spill some to the earth & pass the bottle on.
Early in the morning we killed a gook who was ditty bopping down a trail with an AK47. Guess he thought the war was over, guess he was right. We patched him.
D company returned to the scene of the previous day's battle. There had been over 40 men wounded the day before & only about half of them had been medevaced out.
I was watching a medivac coming in. It started taking fire from a .51 caliper machine gun. The chopper tried to pull up, it was vibrating badly & it actually looked as if it just stopped in the air. The tail came up until it flipped over & vaporized in mid air. No explosion. No survivors.
Now 2nd platoon was going to cross the dyke with one of our sister companies to get our dead. I had known all morning that we would be going to get Ed today. I felt as if all would be lost for me once I saw Ed's body. I don't know how to explain it, but it seemed as though I was waiting to see Ed's body, & then somehow I knew my mind would just leave me. As I was getting ready, Big Mike & KC came over & told me I should stay here & they would take care of everything. I got mad & gave them a lot of lip. "Who the hell do you think you?re talking too? I tell you what to do!" Big Mike told me to shut up, that I was staying here. "One way or another you're not going anywhere!" Then KC said something like "That goes double for me!". Which made me laugh & I let them talk me into staying. They knew what the sight of Ed's body would have done to me. Somehow, having these 2 guys care that much for me, pulled me back to a place where I could go on. After the bodies were recovered, I was told that it looked like Ed was shot first, in the leg, & Shake-n-Bake was trying to get him to cover when they were killed. They were lying up against a stonewall. KC told me later that Big Mike saw a guy from the other company taking a picture of Ed's body. The guy was lucky, Big Mike just hit him, I would have shot him. Big Mike left the field that day for R&R. He never came back. He got a job, in the rear, as company armorer.
They called in an air strike to destroy that little bit of land where so many of our buddies died. There were many bunkers in there with trenches & tunnels so they could move around. There were even platforms in the trees. The air strikes were coming in from east to west dropping their bombs & napalm. We were north of the target. Then I noticed a Navy F4 coming in from the south. He should have let loose by now. Right over the target he dropped two 250 pounders, the ones with the fins on the back, the ones that glide into the target. I was watching the bombs come right at us, sailing over the rice paddy. I threw myself to the ground. So did about 300 other grunts. The bombs hit the paddy about 10 feet on the other side of the bank, which was about 6 feet high. I was covered with mud & dirt & I wasn't dead. I was sure I was going to die a moment ago.
For the next month & a half that thought was in my mind all the time.
I really felt bad about the medic. He replaced the old medic "Doc" the one with the thick black glasses, who was wounded when Nick was killed. The new medic was a conscientious objector & wouldn't carry a weapon. All the medics I knew carried weapons & would fight if they had to. Most of us gave him a hard time about it, including me. We treated him like a coward. KC talked to me about it one time. He told me I should give him a break, he was here wasn't he? I just didn't get it at that time. The man was a hero. He didn't have to follow us in when he did. I'll always remember him. I wish I could remember his name.*
You remembered Sgt Shake-n-Bake when we talked on the phone. We talked about the problems he caused as soon as he joined the squad. He was an instant Sgt & thought he knew everything. He wouldn't take advice from more experienced grunts. Shake-n-Bake would not pull guard duty with the rest of the squad. Ed had an intense dislike for this man. He rode him every chance he got & called him on every mistake he made. The guys in the platoon who survived the 21st could never understand why Ed went in with Shake-n-Bake. We talked about it. Was it to show him up again? Could it actually have been concern for the fool? We'll never know. The only good thing we could say about Sgt Shake-n-Bake was that it looked like he tried to help Ed get to cover when he was shot.
Talk to ya soon,
Sully
*I've since discovered the Medic's name was Keith Newton Starnes Jr.
Sully D/1/501
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