The Grenade Incident
by Ken Hornbeck
M
y recollection of the grenade incident on June 8 is as follows:
I heard a loud explosion and a couple of guys told me to follow them up
the hill to where the explosion came from. When we got there it looked like
a small napalm bomb had gone off. My friend was Lt. Black's RTO and was
lying next to the LT who was in pain. The RTO was screaming and squirming.
He thought he was hit bad but his radio (the PRC-25) was burning against his
back from both the shrapnel from the grenade and the explosion from the
flamethrower.
Now I could be wrong from over the years because my memory is not that
great about details and names. But it seems to me that the two-man
flame-thrower team was "crispy critters". It seems we had to carry them out
with ponchos.
My friend with the radio seemed not too bad once we got the burning
radio off him. Another friend who was carrying the M-79 (blooper) caught
some shrapnel in the right eye. I remember it wasn't bleeding very much but
it looked like a golf ball was under his eyelid. Me and two other guys
returned carrying LT Black down the hill. I will never forget the look in
his face. I was on his left arm and he looked up at me (face pocketed with
shrapnel) and said to me, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry ." all the way down the
hill. I can't remember if it was the RTO or the guy with the Blooper who
told me how the LT pulled the pin, switched hands and threw the grenade left
handed and it bounced off a tree.
Then I did something stupid. I went back up by myself (I just wanted to
helpful and didn't know better - a new guy). I started to pick up the
weapons that were left behind in a manner like carrying logs from a
woodpile. As I turned around there was a NVA soldier with a bead on me. I
yelled, "No!" and heard gunfire. He fell. Looking around the tree was a
SSG who I think was a PLT Sgt with kind of reddish tint hair. He told me,
"Come on." When we got down to where the wounded were he told me never to
go off alone again. I just wanted to be one of the guys.
Ken Hornbeck
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