"As we lay in the muck, I could see Captain Detrixhe and Lieutenant Erle Taylor, the company executive officer, talking on the radio. All of a sudden a flight of helicopter gun ships appeared overhead and started smoking the tree line with rockets. They made run after run pounding the enemy positions. We could feel the enemy fire decreasing in intensity. We knew we had a chance to pull our wounded guys out of the paddy under the cover of the gun ships. Covering one another, we made it to the tree line on the edge of the rice paddy. Everyone was covered with muck, soaking wet, bloody from gun shot wounds or from the blood-sucking leeches that infested the rice paddy.”

Specialist 4 Garry Bowles was the senior company aid man and usually traveled with the company command post in the line of march. The 2nd Platoon medic had been evacuated with malaria the previous day so Bowles was filling in until a replacement arrived. “It was a little past noon and I was with 2nd Platoon as they advanced parallel of a small river. It was a beautiful day; the sky was a perfect blue without a single cloud in sight. There was a cool breeze blowing across my face and I remember thinking how good it felt. It was what soldiers for a thousand years have called 'A Walk in the Sun'. As our column moved forward I noticed a sandbar running down the center of the river. I waded across onto the sandbar thinking it would be fun to walk there for a while. I had no sooner reached it than I heard lots of automatic weapons fire in the distance. The troopers on the bank of the river immediately hit the ground with their weapons at the ready. Suddenly I felt very stupid standing there fully exposed in the middle of that river."

"I sloshed back across to the safety of the riverbank as fast as I could. Reaching dry land I ran for the nearest cover I could find and landed next to the platoon RTO, Bill Garlinger. He had his radio handset pressed hard to his ear. I could hear lots of excited voices coming from his radio. Garlinger yelled to Lieutenant Cochran who was about 5 meters in front of him, 'Sir, 3rd Platoon has enemy contact and the head of the column is also taking fire, the Captain wants to talk to you'. Bill crawled forward on his belly extending the radio handset to the platoon leader.”

“As Lieutenant Cochran excitedly talked to the Captain, the platoon Sergeant, a big guy named Carerra came running down the trail and dived for cover between Garlinger and Cochran. The Lieutenant still holding his handset to his ear began talking and rapidly gesturing to Sergeant Carerra and pointing up the column. The platoon Sergeant then got to his feet and started running forward. Lieutenant Cochran then yelled to the troopers behind him to 'saddle up and move out'. We moved forward at a trot entering into a wide rice paddy that was to the left of our line of march. Sergeant Carerra was there as we arrived and was busy placing the platoon on line for an assault across the paddy. As we got into position for our attack I watched a mortar crew set up their tube for a fire mission. They placed the bottom of the tube in the base plate, but when they laid the gun in its supporting bipod it immediately sank in the mud."

"One of the mortar crew, a big guy by the name of DeVore, kneeled down in the mud facing the gun. The crew placed the tube on his shoulder for support and Specialist 4 Richardson fired several quick rounds that landed very close to the enemy positions. It was an incredible feat considering they were firing without the bipod or aiming mechanism. We began our assault and like the mortar crew before fell victim to the mud. Troopers were sinking up to their knees in the muck bringing the attack to a standstill. Individual troopers then began jumping on to the dikes and fully exposed started running toward the enemy positions firing their weapons as they advanced. The entire platoon followed suit. I remember as I ran forward across the dikes bullets impacting in the water all around me and experiencing a curious sense of exhilaration.

We made good progress until about halfway across. The enemy had apparently gauged our range and we ran into a withering wall of automatic weapons fire. We all immediately jumped from the dikes into the paddy seeking cover. All along the dikes troopers began returning fire as best they could. As I lay there in the mud firing my M-16, I thought to myself, what had begun that day as a 'Walk in the Sun' had definitely taken a turn for the worse.”

Specialist 4 Juan Fernandez was a rifleman with the 3rd Platoon and recalls the march back to re-join A Company, fighting their way past enemy infested tree lines and across flooded rice paddies. “I remember coming around a hill and noticed to my left an M-60 machine gun crew was setting up to cover our assault. They began to lay down a covering fire as we quickly spread out on line for our attack across the paddy. Halfway across the paddy our advance was slowed as many of us began sinking in the mud. Helping one another we advanced under fire to where we found a stream. We crossed it and continued up the side of its bank which looked down on the enemy village. We started down the other side of the bank, the entire platoon firing into the enemy positions that had been firing at us. As our fire increased the enemies fire slackened and eventually ended entirely. Apparently, they did not want to stick around. We cleared the enemy positions and proceeded across the rice paddy.”

“Artillery and mortar fire were brought to bear on the enemy positions as the 2nd Platoon continued their advance under the barrage. The position was seized by 2nd Platoon but no enemy soldiers were found. The 2nd Platoon then received fire from its left flank and fire support was directed to the new enemy positions. Lieutenant Polonitza's 3rd Platoon continued to the Northwest sweeping the village and the tree line while continually drawing enemy fire. We then deployed to map position Moi Nhon in the vicinity of coordinate Cord. There, we found a farmer who said there had been about 50 Viet Cong who had been shadowing us from the tree lines and attacking our line of march. It appeared that they were acting as a delaying force against the A Company advance. Once again the enemy broke contact and was nowhere to be found. We were then ordered to return to a pre-designated map coordinate. When we were a couple of hundred meters from the position we once again came under enemy fire from all locations previously mentioned. The enemy fire was extremely accurate and very intense. Once again we called in mortars and artillery and for good measure gun ships, which pounded the area with rockets. The D Company Recon Platoon then attacked the enemy in an attempt to roll up their flank.

“The recon platoon met with stiff resistance and suffered high casualties. Mortar crews began pounding the area with white phosphorous and after dropping about 20 rounds on the positions the enemy fire ceased. A Company then covered the withdrawal of D Company to the friendly tree line where we evacuated our wounded. We then were extracted to location Bird arriving about 2000 hours that night. It had been a very long day.”

As the paratroopers of A Company were preparing for extraction, Private First Class Tom Oglethorpe of Petaluma California was excitedly showing off a bullet hole in his helmet. Specialist 4 Jim Rockwell recalled that everyone was kidding Tom about being the luckiest guy in A Company. The next day February 24, Private First Class Oglethorpe, along with five other A Company troopers, was killed while counter attacking an enemy ambush. Private First Class Thomas Jay Oglethorpe was 17 years of age; he was killed in action ten days short of his 18th birthday.