July '67
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Saturday, 1 Jul ’67

I had radio watch ‘till 0100. At 0530, Milsap woke me up. By 1100, we were back at Cam Lo Base. Found we had "Gooks" on three sides of us. Hit us with recoilless rifles, or 120 mm tubes (3 incoming rounds.)

Sunday, 2 Jul ’67

I made it to Mass today.

Tuesday, 4 Jul ’67

Bravo Company, 1/9 was overrun on this date. 35 men killed (including the C.O.) 128 wounded and 23 missing in action. The next day, Echo Battery killed 75 "Gooks"

The "Gooks" had shot down two of our jets.

Change of CommandToday, Lt. Col. Peeler was relieved by a new one. I’ll get to know his name soon.

 

Form two ranks- dress right dress  

Some times medals were presented to men in formation.

I got a knife from Stevie today-Sharp!!!

At approximately 1400 the whole battalion (almost) was told to get their gear on. We were moving out at any minute.

Then we were leaving at 1600; then by 1730; then 1800.

Then by 1630, they had lifted the "stand by" but we still may go.

Thursday, 6 Jul ’67

 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHTHidden in plain sight.

West left today for Dong Ha. Tonight, we had all sorts of activities. Three Troop convoys (V.C.). Beaucoup NVA ARTY Batteries. Six SAM’s flew over us. Fox had 6 incoming rockets. All sorts of V.C. troop concentration.

Friday, 7 Jul ’67

Today, I received a letter from Pam Ascanio, telling me her sister Melinda (or Dee Dee, as they called her) had passed away on June 25th.

[Melinda was the little 4th grader whose letter I picked out of a stack of letters from her school. I believe one of the men in our unit knew a teacher from that school and that is why they picked our unit to send mail to.

I wrote back and forth to Melinda three or four times before the letters quit coming. She had typical 9 or 10- year-old questions. "What is the food like?" "Can you send me some dirt?" Do you get dry?"- I wrote back to Pam once or twice.

The other Marines in my bunker commented, "Here we are over here getting shot at, dodging death every day, and a little 4th grader dies for no reason." It hit all of us hard and we had never even met her.

I had hoped to meet her family one day when I got back to the States.

It turned out Melinda succumbed to a form of galloping leukemia, I believe.]

 

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