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Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall |
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Enemy Virtually Wipes Out
Two U.S. Platoons |
Saigon (UPI)--Hundreds of black-bereted North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded two "lost platoons" of U.S. paratroopers high on a mountain ridge and virtually wiped them out in fierce fighting that killed 76 Americans, U.S. spokesmen said Saturday. Only six of the trapped GIs survived and they all were wounded. Nineteen other Americans from rescue units seeking to reach the besieged Americans were wounded in one of the worst defeats suffered by the American Army in Vietnam. A paratroop spokesman said the North Vietnamese, after mowing down the two platoons in murderous cross fire, methodically went among the wounded GI's finishing them off with pistol shots and rifled their bodies of food and money. But the North Vietnamese paid a heavy price in the battle with the two platoons and other troops of the U.S. 173rd airborne brigade that tried to rescue them in the mountains near the borders of Cambodia and Laos about 275 miles northeast of Saigon. A communiqué issued in Saigon said "no firm casualty count has been reported" but officers in the field estimated that the North Vietnamese 24th division had suffered as many as 450 dead in the fighting. At one point bodies of about 60 North Vietnamese soldiers were found stacked up around the perimeter of the lost platoons. They had apparently been used as shields for the charging Communist soldiers. The battle actually took place Thursday but correspondents were forbidden by the U.S. military command to report it until Saturday. Military officials said they did not want the Communists to know that contact between the lost platoons and their parent unit had been broken. Seventy of the 76 Americans who died in the fighting along the ridge line belonged to the two platoons from one company of the 173rd airborne. The six others were from rescue units. "Every man in the company is a hero," said Company commander Capt. David Milton of Dallas, Tex. "The folks back home can be proud of them and how they conducted themselves." |
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Award of Medal Due
Posthumously Pfc. Charles H. Snow, who was killed in Vietnam June 22, 1967 , received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals. Pfc. Snow was killed in Vietnam when, as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, two platoons were cut off from other U.S. troops near the Cambodian and Laos borders and were virtually wiped out. Making the presentation was Maj. James D. Straus, executive officer of the Second Battalion, 414th Regiment, Army Reserve. |
Soldier Receives Vietnamese Medals Two medals from the government of the Republic of Vietnam have been awarded posthumously to Army Pfc. Charles H. Snow, Medford, who was killed June 22, 1967, while a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade about 275 miles northeast of Saigon. Presented were Military Merit Medal and the Gallantry Cross with Palm. |
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Karl Schmidt
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