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View Full Version : On this day in the Vietnam war July 4th



bobdina
07-03-2009, 10:41 PM
1968 - Red Mortar Round Bounces Off NCO

CHU LAI, Vietnam (Special)

- A soldier with the Americal Div.'s 196th Inf. Brigade was hit in the back with an incoming 60 -mm mortar round and lived to tell about it.

"I was so busy ducking bullets I really didn't know what had happened," said Sgt. Phillip Darrington of Paterson, N.J., of A Co., 4th Bn., 31st Inf.

"I remember we were assaulting an enemy position and drawing heavy automatic weapon and mortar fire," said the squad leader. "Suddenly I was knocked down hard."

He lay dazed until one of his men dragged him into a nearby hole.

"When I regained my senses one of my men said I had been knocked down by an incoming mortar round which bounced off my back and exploded on down the hill," said Darrington.

"I wasn't even hit by any shrapnel and I had only minor bruises where the round had hit me," he added.

Not much documented for this day

Cruelbreed
07-04-2009, 12:27 AM
Jeez it's like reading something from Iraq or Afghanistan. Kind of eerie considering this was so much longer ago.