PATROLS AND SEARCH AND DESTROY

The next day we were to go outside our perimeter to go on a patrol. In the mid afternoon we walked out the south gate in single file, each man about 8 to 10 feet apart. We went up the main road about 2 kilometers and cut off to the right onto a rice paddie dyke and followed it to a hamlet in a treeline in the distance. The foliage was beautiful and the smell of the exotic plants and shrubs was very strong, but pleasant. We walked throught the hamlet for a few hours looking for signs of the Vietcong or weopans. We found a few holes in the ground that could have been used by the enemy, so the engineers blew them up with c4. After that we wnt back to the battalion area.

A few days later we rounded up and saddled up and got into formation and filed out the north gate in a staggered column and walked up the road for a few kilometers, then took a left into a grassy field. Once on the field we got into sweep formation and spread out on one side of the field and slowly proceeded arcoss the field stripping, clearing and destroying any hole we came accrossed. We were also in hopes of flushing out any Vietcong that might be in the area, and finding any supplies they left behind.

Frequently the lieutenant had us halt and move to the right or left, then continue forward. We got about half way through the field when suddenly there was a loud explosion. I looked over to where the sound came from. The moans of a Marines could be heard from the grass where he lay writhing in pain. The call was immediately sounded for "corpsman up!" The new Navy corpsmen dashed swiftly up to the wounded Marine and proceeded in giving him first aid. Within 15 minutes a medivac came and took him to a hospital in the rear. After this incident I began to realize the seriousness of this war. After the helicopter left the senior corpsman said that the doctors would probably cut out part of his stomach and intestines.