MY COMBAT UNIT THE 199th LIGHT INFANTRY BRIGADE IN VIETNAM CASUALITY LIST.
MY COMBAT HISTORY
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH VIETNAM
1969 1970
1969 TET COUNTER OFFENSIVE PHASE
I & II
CASUALITY LIST FOR:
D COMPANY 4th BATTALION 12th
INFANTRY
199th LIGHT INFANTRY BRIGADE
VIETNAM / CAMBODIA
APO 96279
1969 - 1970
(MY SQUADMATES)
(KILLED IN ACTION)
PFC James Earl Bouyer (KIA)
SGT Richard Allen Thursby (KIA)
SP/4 William Arthur DeBates (KIA)
OFFICERS INVOLVED
CPT Stover CO
LT Blackman XO
LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader
LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader
NCO's INVOLVED
Sgt Hall, 2nd Platoon
Sgt Thursby, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon (KIA)
Sgt Claud R. VanAndel, 3rd Platoon (KIA)
(GUYS I CAME IN TO THE COMPANY
WITH)
(KILLED IN ACTION)
PFC David Edward Kenney (KIA)
SGT Claude Richard VanAndel (KIA)
(GUYS IN MY COMPANY)
(WOUNDED IN ACTION)
PFC Pat (Smitty) Smith (Mortar Plt) (WIA)
SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic) (WIA)
LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Ldr) (WIA)
CAPT Stover CO (WIA)
(SURVIVORS)
(My Squad)
(ME) SP/4 Gregory Payne (Pointman)
PFC "Doc" Crockett (Black Medic)(My Squad)
SP/4 Brent Lake (Black Grunt)(My Squad)
SP/4 Bradley (Black Grunt)(My Squad)
SP/4 Guy Owens (My Alternate Pointman)
PFC Dan Krapinski (My Squad)
(COMMAND POST SURVIVORS)
CAPT Stover (CO)
LT Blackman (XO)
SP/5 "Doc" Ken Reppart (Senior Medic)
SP/4 Pat "Smitty" Smith (Mortar Platoon
PFC Jan C. Scruggs (Mortar Platoon)
(OFFICERS AND NCO SURVIVORS)
CPT Stover CO
LT Blackman XO
LT Grossjean, 1st Platoon Leader
LT Peter Johannades, 3rd Platoon Leader
Sgt Hall, 2nd P|latoon
*SPECIAL NOTE:
*JAN C. SCRUGGS was the guy who founded and started "the VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL WALL"
***************************************************
On one recon patrol near "The Fishnet" we got ambushed by a Squad of 6 Viet Cong in an open rice paddie, where we stood up and charged the Viet Cong ambush in a typical textbook classic on line Infantry assault with M-16's on fully Automatic. The firefight ended in our favor.
I was on three anphibious assaults off of a U.S Navy Landing Craft (LCM) (Landing Craft Marine) called "THE GREY GHOST)
On one Company operation my Company went up into the deep dark jungles of Bien Hoa, where we found 50, 100 lbs. of raw rice in an NVA Rice Cashe
On night we got a late night radio call asking us to make enemy contact in an area that was not to far from our ambush site so we rowed down a canal in a snpan bamboo boat
were we ended up in engagging the enemy in my second "On Line Assault" only ths on was at night.
The towns and hamlets we worked or encamped near in our NDP's we operated our combat Operations and Patrols were: Bien Hoa, Bear Cat, "The Fishnet", Binh Chanh, My Yen, "The Pineapple" and the Cambodian Border areas.
WE EXPIERIENCED ALOT OF MORTAR
ATTACKS WITH COMMUNIST 82mm
MOTRTARS.
Charlie Company 4/12 199th LIB had a firefight right next to our ambush site about 6:00pm near My Yen.
My Squad Leader SGT Richard Allen Thursby two weeks before he was killed stepped flat footed on a "Booby Trap Tripwire" and realizing what he did lowered a can of M-60 Machinegun Ammo off his shoulder and set it down on the tripwire to hold it down until
he could get off the wire and jump to safety. He then had us tie a roll of twine on to the canvas strap on the ammo can got down behind the rice paddy dyke pulled the ammo can off the tripwire and blew the "booby trap" in place.
We operated in III Corps Tacticle Zone in War Zone C & D towards the Cambodian Border in Gia Dinh Province and a geographical area called the "Pineapple."
The Company Operations we went on included:
1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase I
Operation Strangler I
Operation Strangler II
Operation Strangler III
Operation Lulu
Operation Strangler IV
&
1969 TET Counter Offensive Phase II
