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By Root 602 0

came on station, one or two medevacs were able to come in for the most seriously wounded. Private Shimer was going into shock; his lungs were heavy with blood and his breath was labored, but he lay there, concentrating on the simple act of breathing. The unarmed medevac descended, a big red cross on its front, and Shimer’s buddy Beason shouted for assistance. Several GIs grabbed Shimer by his arms and legs and heaved him aboard the first Huey as soon as its skids settled in the grass. Fire cracked over the landing zone. Shimer was first aboard, flat on his back on the floor. Others were quickly shoved beside him; then there was the sensation of lifting off. Just then, Shimer felt a whip of heat as a round passed his face, and he saw the pilot jerk in his seat as he was nicked.

Phantoms rolled in after the medevacs.

Bravo Three had taken the brunt of the ambush and PFC Richard Senske, a sharp OCS dropout and acting platoon sergeant, had assumed command. From their point squad, only Lowry Cuthbert, Bob Boyd, and Frank Juarez crawled out physically unscathed. Rick Shimer and Lupe Tobias were wounded.

Ray Wilcox was killed.

Joe Paparello was killed.

Milton Mendoza, a medic who ran up from another platoon, was also killed. All together, Bravo Company lost five dead and twenty-four wounded. Alpha Company also took casualties helping get these men back: three volunteers themselves from PFC Goodwin’s squad—Ralph Poe and two green seeds, Harry and Diaz—were wounded.

Lieutenant Turpin was also shot.

The last medevac had sailed in and out under fire, and the jets were pounding in when Turpin was dragged into Alpha Company’s LZ perimeter with a sucking chest wound. While Cooper directed the air strikes, Shurtz got on the radio to B-TOC to request another medevac. He told the major on LZ Center that the jets were running north-to-south on the NVA bunkers to their front, and a medevac might land behind them in the paddy to the east. The wounded lieutenant was lying twenty-five feet from Shurtz and his RTO, under morphine and tended to by Doc Peterson.

The medevac was refused as too dangerous.

Lieutenant Turpin—Shurtz didn’t know who he was at the time—died in the dirt as the Phantoms dropped delay-fused bombs on the bunker complex.

Bravo died that day, and Alpha melted.

Several grunts came up to Shurtz, jerking the frightened medic along by his collar. One of them spat, “This guy was hiding in a foxhole with his hands over his ears! Keep him with you ’cause if he comes near us, we’re liable to blow him away!” The medic was mentally a million miles away. He wasn’t the only one. Private Goodwin had settled behind a banana tree; at each Phantom pass, the NVA turned their weapons skyward and he rolled behind the tree as bomb fragments slashed the surrounding brush. No resupply choppers could get through this crossfire, and Goodwin was down to half a canteen and a single bandolier of rifle ammunition. Most of the green seeds were completely out of water. Goodwin wouldn’t share his when they asked, but he did suggest they use their machetes to get into the banana trees and chew the tart but moist meat. Others were going a little crazy in the sunbake. They licked sweat from their arms, which only made them retch. Some stripped bark from the trees to eat. Everyone was almost out of food.

Finally, a water detail was organized; on Shurtz’s map, a well was indicated to the east along the route Bravo Company had humped in on the day before. The detail set out and was gone too long. Shurtz was extremely worried, until the GIs finally came back and reported that NVA were refilling canteens from the well when they got there. They laid low and snuck up to the well after the enemy moved on. As if to confirm that the North Vietnamese were everywhere in AK Valley, as A and B/3–21 shored up their perimeter, a platoon from C/3–21 was CA’d behind them atop Nui Lon and almost immediately came under mortar fire.

While B/3–21 was being mauled, D/4—31 to the west—three days under fire, and Captain Whittecar, two days back in command—finally got their