Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [37]
Marijuana is mentioned here not because Lemon was proud of trying it–he wasn't– or to imply that its use was heavy in his platoon–it wasn't–but to put into proper perspective subsequent press reports that Lemon was “stoned” when he won the Medal of Honor. Lemon was so quoted in a local newspaper article (which was picked up across the country under such headlines as “High Heroism”), but he has repeatedly denied this. Testimony of fellow platoon members bears out that Lemon himself and Echo Recon as a whole were too professional to tolerate marijuana in the bush.
From Camp Hazard, Lieutenant Colonel Reed, CO, 1-11 ACR, could see the explosions some eight kilometers away at FSB Illingworth, and under the direction of Colonel Ochs to whom he was opcon, he dispatched D/1-11, his tank company, to help break up the attack. The U.S. Air Force FAC that was to guide their cross-country dash remained at an altitude where he could see nothing, and although mortar and artillery illumination was fired, the tankers could not get their bearings and spent two hours making little headway through a thick wood line. Finally, Lieutenant Colonel Reed decided to take the risk and ordered his tankers to switch on their searchlights and, thus illuminated, the FAC was better able to direct them. At the same time, 1-5 Mech, 25th Division (Lt. Col. Ted G. Westerman), which had been laagered near Thien Ngon, was also making a run for the embattled firebase, using its overwhelming firepower to pass through several RPG ambushes along the way.
Captain Arnold W. Laidig, CO, B/1-77 FA, had been helicoptered to Illingworth only six days earlier after initial service with the Big Red One. For his actions, he was reportedly recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross. He probably did not receive it because by dawn he was spent and shaking. Colonel Brady, arriving then in his command ship, relieved him of his command.
Major Magness later commented, “That portion of the official report dealing with eight-inch ammunition reads like a cop-out. We all knew what was required regarding the storage of ammunition, but there was just too much delivered too fast. We had never been placed in such a vulnerable position before and the engineer support came too little and too late. There were real heroes at Illingworth; the crime was that no one was court-martialed for letting it happen.”
Chapter 7: FIRST SERGEANT, I'VE GOT A FEELING
By five in the morning, having been unable to get a single man over the berm without being killed within seconds, the NVA faded away. That was when someone poked his head into the culvert shelter where Major Magness of the 32d Field Artillery had lain for the duration, and said, “Are you okay in there, buddy?”
One arm and one leg of Magness's jungle fatigues were ripped and blood soaked from his original wounds, and his left eardrum had been painfully ruptured by the explosion of the ammunition bunker. It was during the stunned stillness following the explosion that Magness had heard Vietnamese voices on the other side of the berm. He had raised his .45 in his wounded right hand and managed to get off one round before the weapon fell from his grip. Weak from loss of blood and near delirium, he had lain under the culvert until found at first light. He was groggy from the medic's morphine when his friend Major Furey from the 19th Field Artillery knelt down to talk briefly to him before the litter team rushed him toward the medevacs.
Furey had just come by Loach from Tay Ninh, just behind his commander, Fitzgerald. Illingworth was still a complete mess, quiet and eerie in the half-light of the rising sun. Scraps of ammo boxes were still smoking, and unexploded howitzer rounds and powder cannisters were scattered in the upturned earth. Literally nothing