Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [148]
Don't mean nothin'.
The next day, they received word that Lieutenant Weed had died in the 93d Evac Hospital in Long Binh. Through correspondence with his family, they further learned that Mrs. Carolie Weed gave birth to their daughter a week later.
The evening that the lieutenant died, Captain Lowe and Chaplain Reynolds conducted a sundown memorial service. Three M15 rifles were jammed, bayonets down, into three groupings of sandbags, with three pairs of jungle boots set before them. The boots, rifles, and headgear belonged to the dead, all of whom had been promoted posthumously. First Lieutenant Weed's bush hat with a turned-down brim sat on his rifle butt, as did Staff Sergeant Macomber's bush hat with the brim turned up in front and back, and Specialist Lonsdale's helmet with a peace sign drawn on the camouflage cover. A bugler played taps, and the survivors, in rumpled fatigues and sun-bleached jungle boots, stood in loose rows with their heads down.
Then they got smashed. The company first sergeant, William Kitch, a grand old soldier of some forty years with a wiry mustache, a wiry frame, and tattoos across his chest, made sure that his grunts had beaucoup beer, soda, and steaks. First Sergeant Kitch had been a platoon sergeant with the Big Red One, and then with Delta Company, before his promotion, and he knew what grunts needed. They needed to forget and move on. Some couldn't. Wylie Walker sat in the NCO Club as the sun went down, getting progressively drunker, writing about his depression to his fiancée. He began sobbing. Miller helped him out to the company street. They were stumbling to the barracks when Captain Lowe came out from his hootch and asked what the problem was. Choking back tears, Walker said if he hadn't run around like a fool and wasted all his grenades, Weed and Macomber wouldn't have had to come up to help. They were good men. They'd taken the shrapnel meant for him. Lowe put his hand on his shoulder and told Wylie he needed some sleep.
There wasn't anything else to say, but there was some small token that could be made for such men. The 6th of the 31st Infantry, as a whole, received the Valorous Unit Award with PARROT's BEAK em-broidered on the red, white, and blue streamer, and Lowe made it a personal goal to have that handful of men who'd performed decorated for their actions.
Walker eventually received the Silver Star for Chantrea, and the Distin-guished Service Cross (DSC) for Ph Tnaot. Wood got the Distinguished Service Cross.1 Bayer and Miller got the Silver Star. Sprinkles and Godfrey got the Bronze Star with “v.” Weed and Macomber were recommended for Silver Stars, and Captain Lowe eventually received a Silver Star.
A week out of Cambodia, Delta Company was back in the field. On 30 May 1970, Captain Lowe was wounded again, this time in less meaningful circumstances. While razing Jarrett, another temporary firebase, an artillery round or claymore mine ended up in a trash fire; the resulting explosion cracked several of his ribs, blew out an eardrum, and stung his face and arms with shrapnel. The next evening, a 3d Platoon night ambush was itself ambushed and Pfc Rodney Sanders, who'd been trans-ferred in from the Big Red One and whose tour was almost over, was shot and killed. He was the fourth and last man that Captain Lowe lost during his six months in command of D Company.
The first week of June consisted of a steady, driving rain, mud and more mud, and no contact. Shriveled, dirty, and fatigued, Delta Company was relieved at FSB Jackson on 7 June 1970 by elements of the 25th Division, and was airlifted for a standdown at FSB Keaton. Captain Lowe again opened his journal:
As I sat at my field desk in my room, the war seemed to change its face. It was still going on but it was clear that with the continuing U.S. withdrawal that the heart had gone out of not only our efforts, but our allies as well. It was on the faces of the ARVN officers and the look was fear. Downstairs, someone's radio played Simon and Garfunkers “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Carpenter's