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bees were all over my body —stinging me thru my clothes—I remained as still as I could as each sting felt like a hypodermic needle —the VC patrol apparently did not see Harris or myself—they were focused on the bees. The VC decided to reverse their direction and go the other way. This was good because, otherwise, they would’ve run right into my platoon. I was in great pain at this point—my entire body was aflame with bee stings—later we counted close to fifty +. I waited as long as I could and quietly worked my way back to the platoon area. PFC Harris was already there and had briefed S/Sgt. Wenger who was in the process of mounting a rescue mission to go get me. I nearly collapsed onto a poncho they had laid out for me—the bee stings looked like golf balls all over my body. Our corpsman began administering steroids to keep the swelling down. We had to hold up there that night as I became very ill with all the poison in my system. By morning I felt a little better but not good. We had to get moving—at this point finding water was our main priority—we were down to approx. 3/4 canteens of water for the entire platoon —we rationed our water so that each Marine could at least get a swallow of water as we searched for a water supply.
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