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Asbury and the XO of the USS Kemper County
The XO as well as many of his shipmates were very interested in the
Vietnamese people, the VC, the Marine role in the Civil Action efforts to win the hearts and minds of the people by providing medical care, protection from the VC and health and sanitation needs. One evening while the XO was visiting—three VC attempted to breach our perimeter. The Marines in that sector were alert and opened fire and threw a grenade at the potential invaders killing all three who were armed with carbines but no explosives.25 @ The Navy personnel were unceremoniously thrown to the deck by the platoon sergeant while the gunfight took place. It turned out to be the ‘big adventure’ for those sailors that they wrote about in their ships newspaper.26@
Part of our Company mission was to patrol a couple of small islands near Chu Lai—we did this by amtracks—loading the platoon on three or four of the vehicles —going out to the island just a few hundred yards off the coast
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