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killed. L Co. was attempting to reach the besieged I Company when they were also ambushed—the lead platoon commander was killed. Lt. Doss moved forward to rally the troops in that platoon—they could not reach I Co. because they had to set up a defensive perimeter and evacuate the Marines killed and wounded in that ambush. Later, the next day L Company continued their efforts to reach I Co.—the heat was extreme and several of Hugh’s Marines had heat stroke and had to be evacuated—including the Company Commander—Hugh took over the Company and led them safely back to the 3/3 base camp. 2/7 landed a couple of days later and relieved 3/7 of the TAOR.@ 8 More about Lt. Doss and our ‘brother battalion’—3/7 later.
A few weeks later our uniforms were literally rotting off our backs—we kept hearing about the new, lightweight uniforms we were going to get—that would dry quickly and were lighter and didn’t retain the sweat but helped evaporate it—with a lot of pockets for c rations, ammo—anything—something our regular uniforms didn’t have. We also heard about the new ‘jungle boots’ that were ventilated and dried out quickly.
I did make an observation on one of my brief visits to Battalion HQ that everyone in The Battalion staff and army soldiers walking around the compound all had the new uniforms along with the new boots which were made to drain easier and prevent ‘immersion foot’ which many of our troops were coming down with. It was obvious that those Marines in the rear area closest to command were
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