One of the platoons was getting ready to go back into the area to check things
out. I noticed one of the guys, a fellow Cherry and friend of mine Garland was in
the point-man position (after only a week in the field.) I walked over to Garland
and I could see he had the look of concern and nervousness. I told him to take it
slow and to watch his ass.
Then this black guy, who I guess overheard our conversation said, "Hey, I'll walk
point, I want to kill some gooks." I just looked at Garland and he said, "Fine,
okay by me." So they switched places and Garland became his slack man. Not too
much later, around the same area of the grenade incident (there was a wall and a big
tree) all hell broke loose with machine gun fire. I hit the ground on the trail.
Then I saw a guy crawling back down the hill with blood around his eyes. His hands
were out in front of him as he crawled, trying to feel his way back. I wanted to go
to him but didn't know what to do. Ironically, I looked over to my left and lying
close to the wall was the same SSG with reddish hair who saved my life. We had eye
contact and he nodded, as if to say "okay go". It turned out the guy with the
messed up eyes was Garland. We got Garland back to a secure spot and asked him,
"What happened to the point man?" He said that he got hit in the shoulder and
crawled the wrong way.
It turned out that Garland's wounds were not too serious, the machine gun bullets
shot the bark off the trees into his eyes. I saw him two months later and he told
me thanks and shook my hand. I didn't recognize him at first because he was wearing
those old black-rimed Army issued glasses.
I saw Garland again while in holding for DEROS, waiting for our "Freedom Bird"
back to the "World". Garland was lying in bed looking really sick. I carried him
to the EVAC and they took one look at him, put him in a wheelchair and took him
through the swinging doors. A few minutes later the nurse came out and said,
"Soldier, your friend has malaria and he will be going to Japan." I never saw him
again.
I had heard that the MIA just came walking back into camp around October. As you
can imagine when he came back he was in pretty bad shape, spaced out and had lost a
lot of weight. I read in B Troop 2/17 CAV After Action Reports of Lamar Plains that
the higher ups wanted to keep the incident quiet. Some reported that the guy came
back to some camp around Phu-Bai. Well that's one hell of a walk from Tam Ky. So
much for After Action Reports. Whatever.
Ken Hornbeck
D/1/501