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on this critical supply Base from the hills surrounding it. Capt. Tolleson called the platoon leaders together and gave us our assigned ‘sector’ to secure. We would be choppered in ( hill # 586 ) dropped off and clear a suitable area to defend the position. 7@ We were to dig in , lay wire around our positions and patrol the region we were assigned day and night. We were to set up ambushes on likely enemy pathways and listening posts in and around our positions at night. Each platoon was operating independently while staying in contact with Company HQ. We established artillery target zones by calling in our positions and identifying likely enemy approach points surrounding our positions. We were indeed choppered to the top of the high ground we were supposed to secure approximately mid day. The choppers landed disgorging the platoon—one by one the choppers came in —the troops scattered into a perimeter in case of an enemy assault on our landing. As usual we waited until all choppers had delivered the entire platoon. This was the adrenaline producing moment we had been expecting—we were essentially alone on top of this Godforsaken piece of real estate looking into the strange land around us not knowing whether or not it was saturated with VC or simply the animals which inhabit the jungle. We found the geographic location we would establish our platoon HQ and perimeter—The platoon Sgt. and I met with the squad leaders and walked the perimeter— pointing out fields of fire, danger zones, etc.—we then identified an area we would use for our toilet needs . Everyone turned to and cleared the area leaving some vegetation for daytime shade and night time camo. We established squad sectors and assigned two Marines to each fox hole position —which each team
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