Page 182 - Echo 127

Chapter 39
What happened to the officers of E Co., 2/7?
As a follow up to the story that I’ve told I tried to learn what the Marine officers of E-2-7 did after their time in Viet nam. I learned that most of the E-2-7 officers left the Corps after their four year commitment as did most of the officers of 2-7 generally. The good news is that all of the 2-7 officers that started out together , survived the war. Every single officer in 2/7 had distinguished himself in combat. Lt. Nick Groz was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during Operation Harvest Moon . Several others were awarded commendations for their time in VN and several received the Purple Heart ‘ for wounds received while there. A few of these Marines continued their career in the Corps. The majority decided to exit the corps . The Viet Nam War was a deciding factor in many of those Marines’ decisions. At the time we all faced a turnaround tour in Viet Nam and most of us had seen up close and personal how the War was going and if anything—in 1968 —things were even worse than when we were there in ’65-’66. Many of us were now married —with children. As I spoke with these Marines I got the distinct impression that many—would have made the Corps a career if not for the Viet Nam War. Combat, itself, didn’t bother these Marines—it was simply the disillusionment that they had with the political juggernaught that ran the military operations in Viet Nam. At the time we had to make the critical decision to remain in the Corps or resign our commissions—the War was unpopular—things
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