----- Original Message -----

To: Jack Cunningham (Proud CAP Marine)

From: "Dennis S. Sherman" <marine@stic.net>

Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 11:10 PM

Subject: Re: I was in Duc Duc - March 29, 1971

Jack,
As far as news paper articles, there was an article on the AP wire from the LA Times that made it to the Baltimore Sun Paper.   I am from Baltimore, and my brother saw the article and read it to my parents.  You know one of those "Holy Smokes" kinds of moments.  I no longer have that article, but I'm sure it is in the L A Times archives.
 
I was sent to Duc Duc in late January 1971 to be the "Senior NCO of the Marine Liaison Team."  The team consisted of me, the new guy, two Marine Lance Corporals, who had been there for a while, and really could have done everything that needed to be done by themselves.  

I lived in a little hooch just to the right of where the U.S. Army put a generator on the river side of the compound North (?).  Right behind the building that had "Quan Duc Duc" on it. 

I read the account that the Marine helicopter pilots wrote that is on your website.  That was the first I knew about the boats and the NVA battalions.  I was told later by the Army Intelligence Captain, who was part of Advisory Team 15, that it was elements of the T-89th and 90th Sapper Battalions that had hit us.  

We had been getting shelled on a fairly regular basis, but nothing super-heavy.  I was in the main bunker listening to RFVN about 0230-0300 hrs and they were just reporting that Lt. Calley had been sentenced.  We started taking pretty heavy mortar fire.  It hit the bunker that I was in and the building behind it.  The second mortar round that hit the building took out most of our medical supplies, including the IV bottles.   A Rocket-Propelled-Grenade (RPG) hit the chain link fence that the Army had put outside the bunkers for just this purpose, but the explosion still pushed through the bunker wall and I got hit in the head with a PRC Radio that I was trying to talk on.   We were on the radio pretty quick and found out that the Viet Cong terrorists were hitting several places all at once; so the cavalry so to speak, was spread thin.  

A mortar round hit the roof of the bunker and the ply board ceiling came down.  The Vietnamese Commanding Officer, Major Chin, came in very excited and yelled  "VC in compound."   An American Army Officer and I took an M-60 machine-gun and headed for another bunker.  We could see that most of the bunkers below us on the west side of the compound had been satchel charged and were gone.  We opened up with the M-60 just to let the Viet Cong know we were there and they  promptly returned the favor and wounded the Army Officer in the arm.  We could hear explosions all over, but I could not see what was happening on the village side of the perimeter.  We were the only folks on the west side of the defensive perimeter for a while, and finally a Vietnamese machine gunner came over and opened up on our side with us. 

After what seemed like an eternity, black hammer helicopters showed up and began to lay down some fire and things began to calm down on the west side of the perimeter.   When the sun came up, I was able to get over to the south side towards the former 5th Marine Base at An Hoa and could see that the village was a wreck.  The hooches were mostly burned down and there was a VC flag flying over the big blue building.   There were a few houses left, which were very close to the road that went from the compound out towards An Hoa. 

We had helicopter support and they were shooting and buzzing around the village.  Some of the South Vietnamese troops moved out to take back the village areas that the Viet Cong terrorists were still holding.  

We began trying to evacuate the wounded.  I can't tell you how many wounded there were, but they were being taken out on Ch-46 helicopters.  Old Vietnamese and young Vietnamese kept coming out of their burned village.  The sight that will always stick in my mind was a little two or three year old boy lying on the ground with a huge bandage around his little head and it was soaked with blood.  His eyes looked up at me and they were going back and forth like a metronome.  We were evacuating wounded villagers as fast as possible, but more would come. 

An old Vietnamese peasant was being carried on a bloody sheet by his family, little kids and some women.  There was a lot of blood and death and destruction all around. 

I couldn't figure out what the terrorists' military objective was.  The Viet Cong put up a flag in the village and they hammered us, but they must have known they weren't going to be able to hold it.  We had a lot of dead in the compound and in the village.  Most of the village was gone, and I don't know how many villagers were casualties.  We got their flag from the village and weapons from 33 KIA's.  It took several days of evacuating wounded and picking up bodies.  My ears rang for more than a day.  They had to send in a Navy ordinance disposal team to pick up all the unexploded grenades etc. that were lying around from an ammo bunker they blew up. 

The U.S. Army Officer, who was wounded, received a Purple Heart and I think may have been recommended for a Silver Star. (He had only 13 days to go on his tour.)   I was put in for a Bronze Star by the same Army Officer (The Army was easily impressed by Marines.) 

The Marine Corps sent in a lot of wood and tin to rebuild the village.  About two weeks later, I was pulled out of Duc Duc and I was sent to Hill 37.  After that I was sent to Hill 42 and eventually was sent home.    

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I don't know for sure why they hit the village, but it seemed unnecessary to me.   Most of what was there was destroyed.

The Army advisor Team members were:  CO Major Trapnell, he was from near Baltimore too.  A Staff Sergeant, who was born in London England, named Wallon.  The District Intelligence Officer was Capt. Brian Walls.  (I ran into him just a day after we got back to the states at BWI airport.)  Staff Sergeant Malcom Campbell was from Hagerstown Md.   Major Trapnell still lives in Towson, Md. (I think.) 

That is all of the American Team, who I can recall.

CONTACT:   DucDucVietnamFriends@earthlink.net   Pictures of the Duc Duc Resettlement Village and More Details of the Attack at:   http://home.earthlink.net/~ducducvietnamfriends    Additional Pictures of the Duc Duc Resettlement Village at:  http://home.earthlink.net/~vietnamwar   Surrender Was Not An Option http://www.CapVeterans.com         Help Democracy grow in Iraq.  Be part of the solution...   Support Civil Action Programs in Iraq.     Press here to learn about one such Civil Action Program.   Local Heroes in a Foreign War.                Jack_Cunningham