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leaders prepared the platoons we depended upon small unit leadership which is paramount in these situations Fire team leaders, squad leaders —each Marine squad leader / fire team leader not only gets himself ready but he makes sure his fire team/squad is also ready. Our platoon sergeants hovered over their men like hawks insuring that the men, their gear and weapons were ready .
1900 Sept. 29, 1965 Our Company formed up and we moved out—slipping into the underbrush almost immediately —I had the map and had calculated our azimuths from point to point on the map. I was ‘on point’ because of the darkness and the dense undergrowth I had to depend on my compass for an accurate direction to the village. Capt. Tolleson was immediately behind me and I would confer with him from time to time to point out where we were on the map relative to our target. We moved slowly and quietly because of the undergrowth and the darkness—100+ - Marines —in column—moving quietly thru the heavy undergrowth of the mountains West of Qui Nhon—our time target was to be at our ‘line of departure’ at the front entrance of the Hamlet by 0200 the next morning—a distance of approx. four miles from our Co. HQ.
As anticipated the progress was slow because of the terrain and because we were avoiding trails—our progress was checked against our ‘rally points’ that we had marked on our maps which were based upon our estimates of moving our Company at a reasonable rate through the rough terrain. We had a ‘dark moon’ and conditions were fairly good—a slight breeze helped mask our movement thru
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