MY COMBAT RECORD

Personal Memories

People You Remember     MY COMBAT HISTORY     REPUBLIC OF SOUTH VIETNAM                     1969 1970 1969 TET COUNTER OFFENSIVE PHASE                         I & II        CASUALITY LIST FOR:    D COMPANY 4th BATTALION 12th                   INFANTRY    199th LIGHT INFANTRY BRIGADE         VIETNAM / CAMBODIA                 APO 96279                 1969 - 1970           (MY SQUADMATES)          (KILLED IN ACTION) PFC James Earl Bouyer (KIA)  SGT Richard Allen Thursby (KIA) SP/4 William Arthur DeBates (KIA)        OFFICERS INVOLVED CPT Stover CO LT Blackman XO LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader            NCO's INVOLVED Sgt Hall, 2nd Platoon Sgt Thursby, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon (KIA) Sgt Claud R. VanAndel, 3rd Platoon (KIA) (GUYS I CAME IN TO THE COMPANY                         WITH)            (KILLED IN ACTION) PFC David Edward Kenney (KIA) SGT Claude Richard VanAndel (KIA)         (GUYS IN MY COMPANY)         (WOUNDED IN ACTION) PFC Pat (Smitty) Smith (Mortar Plt) (WIA) SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic) (WIA) LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Ldr) (WIA) CAPT Stover CO (WIA)                  (SURVIVORS)                   (My Squad) (ME) SP/4 Gregory Payne (Pointman) PFC "Doc" Crockett (Black Medic)(My Squad) SP/4 Brent Lake (Black Grunt)(My Squad) SP/4 Bradley (Black Grunt)(My Squad) SP/4 Guy Owens (My Alternate Pointman) PFC Dan Krapinski (My Squad)     (COMMAND POST SURVIVORS) CAPT Stover (CO) LT Blackman (XO) SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic) SP/4 Pat "Smitty" Smith (Mortar Platoon PFC Jan C. Scruggs (Mortar Platoon)    (OFFICERS AND NCO SURVIVORS) CPT Stover CO LT Blackman XO LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader Sgt Hall, 2nd Platoon *SPECIAL NOTE: *JAN C. SCRUGGS was the guy who founded and started "the VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL  WALL On one recon patrol near "The Fishnet" we got ambushed by a Squad of 6 Viet Cong in an  open rice paddie, where we stood up and charged the Viet Cong ambush in a typical textbook classic on line Infantry assault with M-16's on fully Automatic. The firefight ended in our  favor.  I was on three anphibious assaults off of a U.S Navy Landing Craft (LCM) (Landing Craft  Marine) called "THE GREY GHOST) On one Company operation my Company went up into the deep dark jungles of Bien Hoa, where  we found 50, 100 lbs. of raw rice in an NVA Rice Cashe On night we got a late night radio call asking us to make enemy contact in an area that was not to far from our ambush site so we rowed down a canal in a snpan bamboo boat were we ended up in engaging the enemy in my second "On Line Assault" only ths one was at  night.  The towns and hamlets we worked or encamped near in our NDP's we operated our combat  Operations and Patrols were: Bien Hoa, Bear Cat, "The Fishnet", Binh Chanh, My Yen,  "The Pineapple" and the Cambodian Border areas. WE EXPIERIENCED ALOT OF MORTAR  ATTACKS WITH COMMUNIST 82mm MORTARS AT MY YEN. Charlie Company 4/12 199th LIB had a firefight right next to our ambush site about 6:00pm  near My Yen. My Squad Leader SGT Richard Allen Thursby two weeks before he was killed stepped flat  footed on a "Booby Trap Tripwire" and realizing what he did lowered a can of M-60  Machinegun Ammo off his shoulder and set it down on the tripwire to hold it down until  he could get off the wire and jump to safety. He then had us tie a roll of twine on to the  canvas strap on the ammo can got down behind the rice paddy dyke pulled the ammo can off the tripwire and blew the "booby trap" in place. We operated in III Corps Tacticle Zone in War Zone C & D towards the Cambodian Border in  Gia Dinh Province and a geographical area called the "Pineapple." The Company Operations we went on included: 1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase I Operation Strangler I Operation Strangler II Operation Strangler III Operation Lulu Operation Strangler IV & 1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase I and Phase II