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the enemy opposition was unknown. So now—the time was here—the smell of diesel fuel coming from the ship and the amphibious vehicles in the belly of the ship signaled that soon , we would board those vehicles and they would be launched for the landing. We wound our way down ladderwells until we came to the huge open bay with the amtraks idiling—the sounds of the diesel engines and the smell of diesel exhaust was unforgettable. Our Company was the ‘first wave’ to hit the beach—my platoon was in the first two amtraks to come off the ship . We loaded the amtraks as directed by Navy and Battalion personnel—roughly one and 1/2 squad per vehicle. My platoon sgt. and platoon guide ( sgt. ) each went with the remaining platoon in the other amtrak. 5@
Almost exactly twelve months earlier I had graduated from the Marine Officer’s Basic School in Quantico, Va. along with several other Marine second lieutenants in the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines. little did I know that I would be in the first amtrak—in the first wave of an amphibious landing at Qui Nhon, Viet Nam one year after graduation.
I looked at our Marines as they boarded those vehicles and saw a little anxiety, a little uncertainty, a little worry but I also saw what I had come to know about the men in this platoon—they were ready and we were a team and we were confident. At this point we had no idea what we might be facing when we landed —machine gun fire, mortars, artillery, hundreds—maybe thousands of VC? We just didn’t know! Apparently our Battalion staff didn’t know either. This fact gnawed at me later—Why did our Battalion mislead us regarding ‘enemy opposition’ to expect in our landing? We learned later that some members of the
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