The comments are still coming in regards to this event: the attack of June 13-14th.
Here’s the most recent one from Chickenman, an artilleryman with the 2/19th Arty. Keep the comments coming! Welcome home SP4 Arnold!
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I was the gunner and shift leader (section chief) on one of the guns (I think 2 or 5) in C Battery 2nd/19th Arty during that wonderful night. I had just returned from R&R in Australia about 6 days before and Top took me aside and told me he wanted me to take charge of the section. There were 2 men that outranked me at the time (an E-5 and E-6) and I was a SP4. He said that he trusted me to take the section over. I asked him how exactly I was supposed to do that in that situation and he said “very carefully”! Well anyway, there were only 3 or 4 of us on the gun, but we were shooting almost continuously, we almost emptied out our ammo bunkers! We were too busy to get scared! But, when it was all over it was a big relief. I remember that after the dust (mud) had settled there was still a gook out beyond the berm that was still alive. He was hiding behind one of the 55 gal drums about 15 meters out. We were throwing everything we had at him M-16’s, grenades, etc and he lasted an amazingly long time! It’s amazing that it took so long to get him after we had just taken care of an entire Company or more! But, then seeing all the bodies lying around afterward being carried off by mules, it really hit hard what we had just been through!
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