wounded

[PHO127]

The worst feeling in the world is not being able to help your wounded buddies. Tried to kill a major once for not firing a danger close mission to suppress fire so we could get dustoffs in for wounded.

I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world because I got to meet one of the medics that treated me in VN. Doc Fred
(1CAVCCO15MED) at a little known SOG FOB named Quan Loi. We were trading where were you at the 2nd Psyco Vets campout at Lake Lanier and after learning I had been at Quan Loi he told the tale of the only special forces officer he ever treated. I had told LT the story before from my side. When we compared dates it was me he treated.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Thanks you guys but I have always been in awe of what you all did over there. It has helped me greatly to have you all include me in your brotherhood but I have never really felt I belonged. I know part of it is that old PTSD thing that we feel like others did more than we did but I still feel that way. Sid, it was an honor to treat you and I am very proud to have you call me friend. The old brain is getting worse and I don't write as much but my feelings for all you will never change.

[Bill Farnie]

1CAVCCO15MED .... never be in awe of us ..... believe me it's the other way around bro


A short story about a Combat Medic



Richard ?Doc? Daniels

Doc Daniels was one of the two medics who survived the battle of Hill 996. Fausto Perez was the other. We lost three medics that day. Thomas Fenush, Larry Motley, and Joe Glassburn the Battalion HHC medic were all KIA. For the grunt on the ground there isn?t anyone who he respects more then the combat medic and I?m sure it?s the same for the Marines and their Corpsmen.

I was next to Doc on the ledge when Claudie Fowler dragged Brian Rapp down the hill. Because the ledge was too narrow to do his work, Doc climbed up and took a position behind a downed tree to work on Brian. He wasn?t fully covered and I don?t know how he kept from getting hit from the unbelievably intense enemy fire. As a matter of fact Brian was hit again twice, while Doc was working on him.

In between working on Brian, Doc Daniels also tended to other wounded and when it came apparent that it was either assault the hill or stay sitting ducks on the ledge because of the NVA?s flanking maneuver , Doc chose to stay where he was with Brian and the other wounded.
I didn?t feel good about leaving him but some of the men who weren?t seriously wounded would be able to protect him and the fourth platoon, who had been pinned down by a mortar barrage and unable to move were now on their way to our location. Later that night after we took the hill and he rejoined the platoon, after tending to more of the wounded from other platoons, he thanked me for saying to him right before we made our assault, ?don?t worry Doc we won?t leave you hanging, if the fourth platoon doesn?t reach you, I will come back for you?. He also said, at our regiments? reunion in 2002, that he will never forget the look on my face as we got ready for our assault and said those words to him. I told him that I will never forget the sight of his jungle fatigues covered in blood and knowing that none of it was his.

Today, Richard ?Doc? Daniels is doing the best he can. He is 100% PTSD rated and takes it one day at a time, some good ... some not so good. Partly because of that thing called survivors guilt. Here?s Doc Daniels own words to Larry Motley he wrote at the virtual wall after coming home from our regiments reunion in 2002;

?Doc, I'm proud to have known you and worked with you. You did a fine job and put your all on the line.
I remember, Doc, when we went down to the river by FSB Currahee for a bath and some fun, all of us naked as jaybirds. Somebody found some "fool's gold" and we all thought we were going home rich men. That's the first time I saw you crack a smile.
That would have been great, wouldn't it? Suddenly it started raining mortar rounds and we couldn't find our clothes. We forgot the way back through the claymores and trip flares. What if someone inside squeezed the clacker to the phoo-gas? We didn't want to be crispy critters. Things worked out though, didn't they? Brian Rapp knew the way back inside the wire and led us in.
Larry, Doc Fenush and I made the change that put you in the 1st platoon. We thought you'd like that, it seemed like the 3rd was always finding trouble. No one knew what lay ahead Doc, and I'm sorry for the way things turned out. Doc Perez and I found your aid bag. We counted 22 holes in it. We could hardly speak. We also found some letters in it. We knew it was against the regs for them to be in your bag so we just turned them over to the CO and didn't tell him where we found them.
Larry, I wish so much that things were different and you could have come home. Somehow none of it seemed fair. We got home and nobody cared. They didn't care what happened to guys like you. They didn't even want to know. I think now some are beginning to understand. They should be so lucky as to have known someone like you.
You are not forgotten, Doc, never have been."

"Doc" Daniels

You see, the three medics made a three way switch, initiated by him, so that Doc Motley wouldn?t be in my platoon, the 3rd. As Doc Daniels said, the 3rd platoon always seemed to hit the shit so he thought that the 1st platoon would be better for the new medic. He can?t get over the guilt of orchestrating the three way switch........ For both Doc Motley and Doc Fenush, who went to the HHC platoon, were KIA during the battle.


Doc Daniels is a true hero and one of the best men I have ever known. He has my undying respect and admiration forever.

[frisco-kid]

I hope Doc Daniels gets some of the peace he so much deserves. Fred, Alan, Hal, Doc Urb, the same goes for all you guys. It's true what Bill said; we grunts were always in awe of you. We were always aware of the feelings you held for us, and you can bet it was returned in spades.

Thanks, you guys.

[PHO127]

LT and I have often said we could never have done what you did without going completely bonkers. It is people like you who are the real heroes, Killing is easy, it takes little or no emotion. Saving lives and standing in there holding onto a person thru their last moments is what takes nerves of steel.

Never be envious of us, it is we who are envious of you.

And I am so proud to have met you and call you a dear friend.

Damn sandstorms