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conducted Company sized operations and sweeps in coordination with Battalion orders.
As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that ( as I recall ) our Company never formed up once we landed in Qui Nhon—we basically operated as independent platoons with our own TAOR’s—the same is true with our Battalion—we never formed up as a Battalion once we landed in Qui Nhon—right up until E Co. was ‘mixmastered’ to 1/4 in Nov. 1965—after the Battalion relocated to Chu Lai to join the rest of the Seventh Marine Regiment. The only times we saw Marines from other companies would be on occasion when we happened to rotate back to the Battalion perimeter for recharging. I can’t speak for other Marines in E Co. or the Marines from other companies in our Battalion but for the life of me it was hard to see the ‘unity’ of our battalion when the only time we had contact was from a radio transmission or a written memo read to our platoon by a Battalion or Company representative. I often wondered why we didn’t have a Battalion formation in a secure area near the airport to hear and see our Commanding officer—whom I recall meeting only once since we left San Diego. The only time we were ‘together’ appeared to be when we were coming or going to a new Battalion location. We were certainly able to gather for the Bob Hope Show but apparently not for a ‘pep talk’ or information session by the Battalion command. Our troops felt isolated and we had many questions re. our mission in Viet Nam —this wasn’t just my opinion but the opinion of everyone I knew at the time.
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