This picture was taken in a remote village.  This was our squad (excluding me - I was taking the photo).  I believe we were the 3rd squad, but for certain it was the 3rd platoon.  A couple of the guys are chewing on sugar cane in front of a Viet Minh monument.  From left: Henry Brown, unknown name, unknown name (he was from Puerto Rico and I think his name was Burgess), David Combs, Fells, Fenton.  Most of the 3rd platoon were new replacements at the time this picture was taken (probably December, 1966 or January, 1967. 

On or about November 19, 1966 Charlie Company was dropped off in Cambodia and left to walk back to Vietnam.  Our platoons were some distance apart from each other on November 21.  Three NVA made an appearance close to the second platoon.  They fired at the three enemy soldiers and advanced towards them.  The three enemy soldiers actually sacrificed themselves to get the second platoon to move in their direction where the NVA had prepared an ambush.  Some of the NVA were in spider holes and when the 2nd Platoon moved forward, the NVA opened up.  Captain Wunch was the company commander and was with the 2nd platoon. 

Just minutes before this happened, a decision was made in the 3rd platoon to take a sick guy back to a firebase.  He had stomach cramps and the trees made it improbable to bring in a chopper.  Sergeant Henry Brown was told to select a squad.  Brown and I were good friends and he picked me along with a few others.  I argued with him, telling him this was a suicide mission.  Brown was upset about it too, but he being 32 years old and a career soldier followed orders.  There were signs of NVA everywhere!  Brown's hand picked squad moved out and we were maybe 300 meters down the NVA trail when the incident mentioned above took place with the second platoon.  Wunch immediately called on the third platoon for support.  When the third platoon started moving, they walked into a well prepared ambush.  Sergeant Julius Durham was the sole survivor, whom I talked with only a couple of weeks ago.  He said that was the first time he had ever seen the NVA.  They were wearing green uniforms and helmets and running back and forth everywhere.  He said shooting them was useless because there were so many.  Within a few minutes the firefight was over and Julius said everything became quiet, "You could hear a pin drop."  Then he heard some screams followed by shots.  And more screams followed by shots.  He said the NVA was walking up to each person who moved and killed them.  Julius was shot but he lay still. 

Not only did we hear the firefight but we picked up Godfrey on our radio.  Godfrey made it quite clear what was happening until the phone went dead a couple of minutes after the firefight started.  We all wanted to go back but it was obvious that there was nothing to back to, so we continued on.  Then they came after us.  Obviously the NVA saw us leave but wanted to draw the third platoon into their set-up ambush.  When I talked with Julius, he said if we had gone back we would have been killed - there were just too many NVA.  Since the NVA were chasing us and firing rounds intermittently in our direction (in case we were to set up a hasty ambush), we left the trail and got the firebase on the radio.  We asked to have someone fire a shot once every minute.  We followed the sounds of the rifle fire and wormed our way back to the firebase.  Later, a crewmember who was aboard a gunship told us that we were being followed by about 100 NVA, but they couldn't do anything because they spent all their ammo helping the second platoon.  Julius Durham and the men that Sgt. Brown picked out were the only survivors of the 3rd platoon.  2nd platoon also had KIA's.  General SLA Marshall wrote an account of this battle in his book, "West To Cambodia" which was published in 1968.