Author:
William Carr
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Date Posted: 13:10:24 09/17/01 Mon
3d Platoon, C Company, 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry (The Old Guard), 199th Light Infantry Brigade (Separate). On April 18, 1966, near Tan Son Nhut Airbase, our patrol was attacked by a sniper. We returned fire, but like times before, the enemy just ran when the shooting started.
We searched for him for a while before making a short stop on a trail on a mud dike. I had just finished eating a pineapple and turned to go in the opposite direction when I heard a muffled explosion that sounded like a grenade going off in a bunker. Almost immediatley, I felt a stinging sensation in my foot, and fell to the ground. I don't remember all the details after that, except I noticed my foot was bleeding and then that my hand was bleeding. I felt a slight numbness in my right shoulder and lower on my back, just above the waist. I had been hit and was more helpless than I had been since I was a child. I was in a hostile place surrouned by enemies. I could not run, because of my foot wound and fractured foot. I could not shoot because my trigger finger tendon was severed. I was bleeding somewhere in my back, but of course I could not see it.
Two other soldiers were wounded, SP4 Edgar Recob of Wisconsin and an Popular Forces (Vietnamese) trooper.
Fortunately, I was covered by God and his angels in the form of my fellow soldiers. They saved my life. They all rushed over to help, but the patrol leader, SGT George Edmonds of Chicago, ordered security out to ward of any attacks. I waited for a few minutes while our medic, SP4 Fritz Daub, now of Pennsylvania, tended the other two and finally got to me. It was probably less than 10 minutes before he was able to get over to me, but I did not feel any great pain, which was surprising to me then and now. I only remember I felt a stinging sensation. In about a half hour or less a medivac chopper picked us up and took us to the field hospital at the Saigon airbase. I had two operations in country. Received my Purple Heart and was shippped to Japan.
Ultimately I made a full recovery and returned to stateside duty in about September. I want to thank all my 199th unit teammates and the medical personnel who helped my.
William J. Carr, Jr.,Sergeant Major (Retired),U.S. Army Reserve
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