Page 10 - Echo 127

approximation of each of the platoons in our Company and in our Battalion— Second Battalion , Seventh Marines. One of the benefits of writing this story was the privilege of tracing down some of my fellow Marines with whom I served during this time. It is written out of the greatest respect for the ‘common grunt’— the Marine in the trenches—one of which I considered myself to be! The officers and enlisted men in 2/7 were a special breed—I knew many of the platoon leaders in other companies in our Battalion—I knew them well from our time together in OCS and in Basic School AND our time together in 2/7. These Marine officers and the men they led distinguished themselves while engaged in combat —they displayed the leadership, courage and responsibility that the Marine Corps expected of them. These Marines were the best of the best—folks I trusted—I knew many of their families and had the greatest respect for them. My story, however, is written from this Marine officer’s perspective—and it’s ‘my’ perspective—not someone else’s.
As I progressed in the research and study of the Viet Nam War that I knew —-I discovered information that I had not heard or seen before. Time had passed— thousands of books and articles had been written and documents released to the public that had been classified before. The internet enabled me to discover that information and tie into it with my story. For example, I discovered a paper written by the former battalion commander of the First Battalion, Fourth Marines, Col. R.E. Sullivan. He wrote the paper years after he retired from the USMC . I had worked for Col. Sullivan as his Staff Intelligence Officer—(S-2 ) after ‘migrating’ from 2/7 as a result of Operation ‘Mixmaster’. The paper described in
10