Timeline, May 22nd

[David]

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
May 22, 1966 (3rd day of the 4th month, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): Ambassador Lodge tells the State Department that Ky claims that his government has "virtually complete control over the city of Danang."

May 22, 1968 (26th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Five 85mm guns are captured by the 3rd Brigade, 82 Airborne Division southwest of Hue. This is the first time such large weapons have been captured in South Vietnam.

May 22, 1972 (10th day of the 4th month, Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Easter Offensive: Intense fighting continues at the My Chanh defensive line throughout the day, and the 3rd and 6th Marine Battalions finally drive back the NVA, restoring their former positions. While these battles are being fought, the South Vietnamese Marine Division completes plans for another major assault later in the week.

[MontanaKid]

May 22, 1969 was a tough day for me and a lot of our battalion. Two men died in the Echo Mortars area when Professional was mortared again. And...

I mentioned in the Mother's Day story that we had to abandon almost all our dead on May 14. Only two were evaced the same day, only because they had lived long enough to be taken back to our perimeter where they died of wounds.

With Alpha and Recon greatly deminished and Charlie also short of men, our Battalion commander considered it not worth the risk to recover bodies four klicks west of the hill until reinforcements were in place. In the week following, most of the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne moved in to our AO, and with that level of reinforcement, we moved out, Charlie and Alpha Companies, to pick up our dead. Recon, with only nine men remaining after the fight, stayed on the hill while they were rebuilding, trying to solicit experienced grunts from the line companies to fill out the ranks. FNGs were never assigned directly to Recon.

I was on the detail that picked up the bodies. I used my field medical cards to tag the body bags that a helicpter dropped off for us. There were 12 in all. We found 11 right away. The 12th, one of my guys, had floated a half mile downstream to where we found him after the other boies had been lifted out. So much of their body mass (remember we are all mostly liquid) had leached out into the ground that we were able to get the first 11 all on one slick.

After eight days, the decomposition was bad. Maggoty mush and even some skeleton exposure. It was a rude awakening to human mortality for this 18-year-old boy medic.

With Memorial Day coming up, this day weighs heavy on my mind, though March 22, 1969 is never out of my mind one single day.

[frisco-kid]

Yep, alot of memories popping up for alot of us as this weekend progresses. Thanks for sharing one of yours, MK. I know from experience it helps to sometimes write them down or talk about them.