STARS N' STRIPES

           MY COMBAT HISTORY

    REPUBLIC OF SOUTH VIETNAM

                    1969 1970

1969 TET COUNTER OFFENSIVE PHASE 

                      I & II

       CASUALITY LIST FOR:

   D COMPANY 4th BATTALION 12th

                 INFANTRY

   199th LIGHT INFANTRY BRIGADE

        VIETNAM / CAMBODIA

                APO 96279

               1969 - 1970

          (MY SQUADMATES)

         (KILLED IN ACTION)

PFC James Earl Bouyer (KIA)

SGT Richard Allen Thursby (KIA)

SP/4 William Arthur DeBates (KIA)

       OFFICERS INVOLVED

CPT Stover CO

LT Blackman XO

LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader

LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader

           NCO's INVOLVED

Sgt Hall, 2nd Platoon

Sgt Thursby, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon (KIA)

Sgt Claud R. VanAndel, 3rd Platoon (KIA)

(GUYS I CAME IN TO THE COMPANY 

                      WITH)

           (KILLED IN ACTION)

PFC David Edward Kenney (KIA)

SGT Claude Richard VanAndel (KIA)

        (GUYS IN MY COMPANY)

        (WOUNDED IN ACTION)

PFC Pat (Smitty) Smith (Mortar Plt) (WIA)

SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic) (WIA)

LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Ldr) (WIA)

CAPT Stover CO (WIA)

                 (SURVIVORS)

                  (My Squad)

(ME) SP/4 Gregory Payne (Pointman)

PFC "Doc" Crockett (Black Medic)(My Squad)

SP/4 Brent Lake (Black Grunt)(My Squad)

SP/4 Bradley (Black Grunt)(My Squad)

SP/4 Guy Owens (My Alternate Pointman)

PFC Dan Krapinski (My Squad)

    (COMMAND POST SURVIVORS)

CAPT Stover (CO)

LT Blackman (XO)

SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic)

SP/4 Pat "Smitty" Smith (Mortar Platoon

PFC Jan C. Scruggs (Mortar Platoon)

   (OFFICERS AND NCO SURVIVORS)

CPT Stover CO

LT Blackman XO

LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader

LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader

Sgt Hall, 2nd P|latoon

*SPECIAL NOTE:

*JAN C. SCRUGGS was the guy who founded and started "the VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL
WALL"

***************************************************

On one recon patrol near "The Fishnet" we got ambushed by a Squad of 6 Viet Cong in an
open rice paddie, where we stood up and charged the Viet Cong ambush in a typical textbook
classic on line Infantry assault with M-16's on fully Automatic. The firefight ended in our
favor.

I was on three anphibious assaults off of a U.S Navy Landing Craft (LCM) (Landing Craft
Marine) called "THE GREY GHOST)

On one Company operation my Company went up into the deep dark jungles of Bien Hoa, where
we found 50, 100 lbs. of raw rice in an NVA Rice Cashe

On night we got a late night radio call asking us to make enemy contact in an area that was
not to far from our ambush site so we rowed down a canal in a snpan bamboo boat

were we ended up in engagging the enemy in my second "On Line Assault" only ths on was at
night.

The towns and hamlets we worked or encamped near in our NDP's we operated our combat
Operations and Patrols were: Bien Hoa, Bear Cat, "The Fishnet", Binh Chanh, My Yen,
"The Pineapple" and the Cambodian Border areas.

WE EXPIERIENCED ALOT OF MORTAR

ATTACKS WITH COMMUNIST 82mm

MOTRTARS.

Charlie Company 4/12 199th LIB had a firefight right next to our ambush site about 6:00pm
near My Yen.

My Squad Leader SGT Richard Allen Thursby two weeks before he was killed stepped flat
footed on a "Booby Trap Tripwire" and realizing what he did lowered a can of M-60
Machinegun Ammo off his shoulder and set it down on the tripwire to hold it down until

he could get off the wire and jump to safety. He then had us tie a roll of twine on to the
canvas strap on the ammo can got down behind the rice paddy dyke pulled the ammo can off the
tripwire and blew the "booby trap" in place.

We operated in III Corps Tacticle Zone in War Zone C & D towards the Cambodian Border in
Gia Dinh Province and a geographical area called the "Pineapple."

The Company Operations we went on included:

1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase I

Operation Strangler I

Operation Strangler II

Operation Strangler III

Operation Lulu

Operation Strangler IV

&

1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase II

Hall-Howell Chapter #512
 

P.O. Box 565
 

Vancouver, WA 98666-0565 

   http://www.wavva.org/512.htm

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