Lawrence C. Vetter - Never Without Heroes: Marine Third Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam, 1965-70

The Huey slick carrying Taylors team was about fifteen feet off the ground when it was shattered by enemy fire. Taylor said, The chopper split in two. The head end went down with all of us still in it. Our team was just behind the cockpit, which was pulverized by fire. I can remember hitting the ground and the front end was skidding around with the rotors still spinning.

Then the team jumped out and set up quick positions under fire. The NVA were hitting us hard. The Huey gunner was blasting away with his M-60, and the shell casings were landing on my back. Normally I carried a shotgun but this time I had an M-16, and the damn thing jammed. The gunner handed me his 16, and I started using it. I know I hit six of the NVA.

We couldnt lob grenades because the rotors were still spinning directly over our heads. The NVA started coming in waves at us. I got hold of the radio and asked for Spooky to get out there and blast the area.

By Lawrence C. Vetter, Jr.

Published by The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group

BLOOD ON THE LOTUS

A Novel of Vietnam

NEVER WITHOUT HEROES

Marine Third Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam, 196570

A Presidio Press Book
Published by The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright 1996 by Lawrence C. Vetter, Jr.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Presidio Press is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-95314

eISBN: 978-0-307-78421-6

v3.1

I know it is a clich to say that I cannot express my appreciation enough, but this book simply could not have been written without the help of so many. If those who put together the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion Association had not done so, this story would have been very limited in scope. If all those to whom I talked had not agreed to share their emotions and memories, this story would be empty. Those individuals are mentioned throughout this book, and to them, from my heart, I say Thank you.

Some are not mentioned in these pages, and I would like to say Thank you to them alsomy wife, Deborah (I love you), for the patience, editing, and help with typing; and my friends John and Nancy Rowe, for putting me up and transporting me around D.C. And to the many women supporting the men of the battalion, like Sandy, Dianne, JoAnn, Kathy, and Karen, God bless you.

I am also grateful for the helping hand and just tremendous public service and assistance that I received from the personnel at the Marine Corps History and Museums Division in Washington, D.C., particularly Joyce Bonnett and Danny Crawford. The same is true for those true public servants at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texasparticularly Jon Wilson and Linda Hansen. Most of the statistics and data regarding 3rd Recon Battalion patrol reports and North Vietnamese and Vietcong order of battle information were derived from the documents contained in the files of these two offices.

I would also like to thank Bill McBride for his help with preparing the maps of Vietnam.

I would like to repeat here my sincere gratitude to Floyd Nagler. And there is one individual who must be mentioned again and his name underscored, for without him in particular there would be no present book: George Neville .

3rd Recon Battalion Association

15642 Heywood Way

Apple Valley, Minnesota 55124

At any one time, the strength of the 3rd Recon Battalion ranged from 500 to 900 Marines and Navy Corpsmen, and approximately 2,800 served with the battalion between March 1965 and November 1969. I was one, and the seven months I served with the battalion in 1966 were the zenith of Marine camaraderie and gung ho team spirit that I experienced during my six-year Marine Corps tour of duty.

However, that teamwork was not without its price. Between 1965 and 1969, Recon teams suffered an estimated 40 percent casualties: 1,133 Reconners killed, wounded, or missing in action.

Of the men I knew and have since met who shared the 3rd Recon privilege with me, not one would define himself as a hero. Yet, operating mostly in small teams, those Marines confronted the enemy on his own turf, miles from friendly units. Wherever they went, they were the eyes and ears of the body of Marine infantry units behind them. In less than five years, those teams counted over 37,000 enemy soldiers or workers, enough to constitute five enemy divisions.

The men of those teams faced challenges and responded to them by daily placing their lives in jeopardy in service to their fellow Marines and to Duty, Honor, Corps, and Country. Their pay was peanuts, pain, and pride; their bed was often a poncho over muddy clay or hard rock, often a tree served as a brace to keep the Recon Marine from sliding down a hillside in the dark of night; their food came from unappetizing little green cans and sometimes their water came from ponds they shared with animals. But they never retreated from the demands placed on them.

In the Editors Note of the December 12, 1969, issue of Life magazine, reporter Jan Mason is quoted as saying that while she was on a tour of American college campuses she was repeatedly and emphatically told, Heroes? Man, we havent any heroes left!

My heart cries out to those college students. They were never without heroes! I wish they could have seen what I saw: young Americans risking their lives for one anotherand often giving the greatest gift they had. I saw them suffering for others and for what they had been taught was a worthwhile cause.

Never Without Heroes is the story of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, during its time in Vietnam from 1965 until 1969. But it is more than that; it is a reflection of the best of American heroism.

On May 7, 1965, the Headquarters of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion landed in Vietnam. Several platoons from the battalion had preceded it as attachments to the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which had landed on March 8. During the next four and one-half years, Marines of the 3rd Recon Battalion conducted reconnaissance operations in Vietnam; the battalion was withdrawn in November 1969. In that time period, approximately 2,800 Marines served as part of the battalion. Colonel Patrick G. Collins (Ret.), who was one of the first Recon Marines in Vietnam, has researched the records and found that, while on duty with the 3rd Recon Battalion, four of those Marines received the Medal of Honor, thirteen received the Navy Cross, and seventy-three the Silver Star. Because of those men, the countless others who received awards, and the even greater number who were better honored by the respect of their peers, the battalion itself was awarded one Presidential Unit Citation, two Navy Unit Citations, one Meritorious Unit Citation, and eleven battle stars for Vietnamese service. Not noted in that list are the unit awards that elements of the battalion received when attached to other commands. But statistics are devoid of life. Behind each award were human emotions, and quite often blood.