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January’65—Hugh and his wife Kaye had their second child ( Donna ) a couple of months before Kimmie was born—I wouldn’t see Hugh again until years later after Viet Nam. Hugh had ended up being transferred to L Company, 3/7 as the XO, and actually arrived in Viet Nam at Qui Nhon before 2/7 landed in July 1965. Hugh Doss’s story was interesting as his unit was the first in Viet Nam to make an enemy assault from aboard ship in helicopters. They were flown in to rescue a unit from third Bn., third Marines and helped evacuate the remainder of that unit which had been badly mauled. Hugh’s Company Commander, meanwhile, suffered a heatstroke and had to be evacuated as well—Hugh took over the Co. and led them back to base camp with quite a story to tell about his first day in VN. More about this later.
Jack Archer was also a platoon leader in 2/7 but was also transferred from F Company during that Spring (’65 ) where he was a platoon leader to H & S Co., 2/7 where he would be in charge of the 81 mm Mortars section for the Bn.—an absolutely critical unit in Battalion combat operations and Jack Archer was the perfect fit for that important job.
In the early Spring of 1965 we learned that our Regiment was going into what is called ‘lock on ‘—preparation to mount out ( deploy ) wherein leave and liberty were restricted in time and distance from the Base. The staffs of each of the Battalions began the process of preparing for deployment—our training accelerated and time at the Base increased while time with our families and loved ones decreased. Our baby arrived on April 14, I was on ‘ temporary detached duty’ as the Range Safety Officer at the Regimental Firing Range near
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