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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 Battalion staff were actually in Qui Nhon prior to our landing—they had flown in earlier. The Third Battalion, Seventh Marines actually landed at Qui Nhon on Jul. 1 and had set up needed security at Qui Nhon. Yet, our ‘command’ led our young Marines to believe they may face hostile fire when we landed—there is a certain amount of natural anxiety that most Marines feel when entombed in an amtrak racing full speed towards an enemy beach—each Marine is silently thinking
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