CHESTY SAY'S
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of ANYONE who threatens it.
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BILL TEHAN III
Echo Company 3d Platoon
NOTE:
MAP TO BE DISPLAYED
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The following is a transcription of a dream. It is a dream about getting shot through the right temple on Hill 580, off of Hill 689 at Khe Sanh the morning of 21 April 1968. I first had this dream several days after I was shot and was still at Delta Med. (Delta Company 3d Medical Battalion) Evac Hospital at Dong Ha before I was evacuated to Naval Support Activity Hospital Da Nang (NSA Da Nang). I had the dream several times a week for the first year or so after I was shot, then several times a month for several years after that, and even now, more than fifty-five years later, once a month or so. The dream has never changed. It always begins and ends at the same spot. At first the dream was a nightmare because I knew what was going to happen and I couldn’t break out of the dream. After a year or so it stopped being a nightmare. A little over ten years ago while sitting in some really boring and repetitive mandatory training at DIA, I transcribed the dream into the document below.
My original transcription had several errors from what I had thought I saw or recalled. These errors were discovered when I showed the transcription to several other former 3d Platoon Echo 2/3 Marines at several reunions. Originally, I had identified my radio operator as L.Cpl. Collins. He is actually Moe Collin, not Collins. I also had thought that Moe Collin had teamed with me in throwing grenades in the bunker, but the Marine who grenaded the bunker with me was a Marine from 2d Platoon Echo 2/3. Mo Collin was standing/crouched to my immediate left when the NVA exited the bunker on automatic fire with his AK and Mo was the first one to be shot in the right arm as the 2d Platoon Marine was diving/tripping in the comm trench trying to get out of the way. At that point in my dream I was focused on shotting the NVA in the face at arms length with my .45 and Mo getting shot and the 2d Platoon Marine diving for cover were at the left side of my field of view and I combined the two events, Moe getting shot, and the Marine diving for cover, into one memory. The Marine diving for cover was not wounded but did end up face down in the trench. I did not know it at the time but both Moe and I were at Delta Maed and NSA DaNang together at the same time. Moe was medevaced back to the States and medically discharge for his wound. He later became the Connecticut Commissioner for Veterans and we finally met again at a reunion in Portland Maine in 2019. He died last year, 2023
Prologue:
"On 15 April (Mon.), 1968, Operation Pegasus ended and Operation Scotland II began. The Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB) broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. On 16 April (Tues.), 1968, a Marine company (Alfa 1st Bn. 9th Marines, A 1/9) began a patrol near the Hill 689 of KSCB. It wandered into tall vegetation and was decimated by concealed NVA soldiers in bunkers. Two more companies from the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (C and D 1/9) were dispatched to save them, but they became ensnarled in this confusing battle in which dead and wounded Marines were left behind as the battalion retreated back to Khe Sanh in disarray. This resulted in 41 KIA, 32 wounded, with 2 of 15 MIAs later rescued by helicopters. The battalion commander ( Lt.Col. John J.H. Cahill) was relieved of duty." (127)
(U.S. Marines in Vietnam, The Defining Year 1968, J.Shulimson, L. Blasiol, C.Smith, and
D.Dawson, History and Museums Division USMC - p 313)
Quote from The battle For Khe Sanh, Wikipedia. Info in the quote within parens added.
(Map coordinates are from JOG NE 48-16, and XD6342-3 Series L7014 Huong Hoa
District, Quang Tri Province, SVN) (Map following text.)
Sunday 21 Aprill, 1968, Hill 580 (XD795398) off Hill 689 (XD803409) Khe Sanh. Three companies of 2d Bn. 3d Marines (E, G, and H) recovering 31 dead of Alfa Company, 1st Bn, 9th Marines.
It was about 0700, because of the mountainous terrain, it had only been light less than an hour. After our clearing of the bunkers/holes inside 2/3's perimeter, 3d Platoon Echo
2/3 was still online facing South just behind Hotel 2/3's line on the South side of the perimeter. (Echo was along the Northern third of the perimeter facing North towards Hill
689, Golf covered the North-East to South, and Hotel covered the South to North-West portion.) Lcpl. Simmons, the platoon sergeant, had insured that the available ammo, and
what grenades were left had been redistributed and had collected the several RPG
launchers and two dozen or so AK-47s we had collected off of dead NVA when clearing the bunkers.
Gunny Moss, Company Gunny E 2/3, and another Marine from the Company CP group had just "found" us. Gunny Moss wanted to make sure of who was and wasn't wounded, and who would be medevaced out when the helos arrived. (Because of the large number of NVA in and around our positions, the last helos we had seen were the ones that dropped us off on Hill 689 when we attacked and occupied Hill 580 the previous afternoon.) He also made sure we had collected up any of 1/9s body bags and had delivered them to the collection point, just above the LZ on the finger below (North) of Echo's lines. (Although the top of Hill 580 would have made a fine LZ, it was exposed to NVA fire from the South and West of Hill 689. The chosen LZ was covered by Marines on both 689 and 580, and the area had been cleared when Echo, Golf and Hotel had attacked off of 689 and occupied 580.) We (3d Plt. E 2/3) had lucked out.
We only had 2 routine medevacs from the previous evening, and had suffered no casualties during our sweep of the inside of the battalion perimeter. (We had formed online, facing South towards the inside of the perimeter, in groups of two, about 8-10 feet between twos, and had crawled on hands and knees South towards Hotel's and Golf's lines grenading every bunker and hole we found. No rounds were fired and it had taken us almost two hours to sweep less than 50-60 meters.) Gunny Moss told me that Captain Russel (Captain William E. Russel, commanding officer of E 2/3, who would win a Navy Cross just over a month later on Foxtrot Ridge the last day of May 1968.) wanted to see me about where to put my platoon back in Echo's lines.
About 0745, Lcpl. Collin, my radio operator, and I started out for Echo's CP which was in a bomb crater just behind Echo's lines. As we approached the CP, about 20 meters away, an NVA jumped up from a bunker to our right front, just behind Echo's lines. He fired a magazine of AK at the CP from about 30-40 feet away, but missed the dozen or
so Marines in and around the crater. I was armed only with a .45. I had given my M-16 to one of my men whose own M-16 had been damaged by shrapnel. Lcpl. Collin was armed with a M-16. We both fired at the NVA as he ducted back in the bunker. I don't think we hit him. Collin and I had both ran towards the bunker as we fired. I had fired 3 rounds from my .45 and Collins had emptied a magazine.
The Marines on Echo's lines had been facing outboard and down hill and had not engaged the NVA when he had shot at the CP group. When Collin and I came up on the bunker, we found an "H" shaped bunker with narrow, 2-3 foot, and shallow, 3 foot, "communication" trenches running from the North-East and South-West entrances. These "comm" trenches ran parallel to, and about 15-20 feet behind Echo's lines. This was not one of the trenches/bunkers we had cleared the previous night. It was too close to Echo's lines and should have been cleared by the platoon manning the line just below it. The NVA, who had shot at the CP had jumped up from the entrance on the South-West side with a "comm" trench running from it. As Collin re-loaded his M-16 we were joined by a Marine from 2d Platoon. I had pulled a M-26 frag grenade from my left rifle pouch and pulled the pin from the grenade. (Even though I am left handed, the Marine Corps had trained me to fire the rifle and pistol and throw grenades as a right hander, so I had switched my pistol to my left hand, and held the grenade in my right hand.)
I crossed over the top of the entrance and crouched left side to the bunker entrance. Collin covered the Marine from 2d Platoon and I as we began grenading the bunker. The 2d Platoon Marine was on the other side of the "comm" trench. I threw the grenade in and backed up and away from the entrance until the grenade went off. Gunny Moss ran up with his shotgun as the 2d Platoon Marine and I took up positions to grenade
the South-East hole. (Whereas the entrances opening up on the "comm" trenches were basically vertical, the entrances on the South-East and North-West entrances were horizontal holes dropping down 3-4 feet, with short tunnels going towards the center of the bunker.)
The 2d Platoon Marine had to lie on his stomach to toss the grenade down and underneath him, then roll to the side off the top of the short tunnel once he had thrown the grenade. Other than grenade detonations there were no reactions to the grenading of the first two entrances. At the third entrance, the North-West hole, I threw the grenade with the 2d Platoon Marine covering me. Gunny Moss was knelling off to the South side of the bunker with his shotgun and the other Company CP Marine who had an M-16. The grenade I threw into the North-West hole was a "Willie Pete" White Phosphorous grenade. I only had the "Willie Pete" and two smoke grenades left. After the "Willie Pete" went off white smoke billowed from the hole and someone started screaming inside the bunker.
Obviously our first three grenades had not cleared the bunker. As the 2d Platoon Marine and I moved towards the North-East/fourth entrance, Gunny Moss and the other Marine moved to cover the North-West entrance, with the smoke still billowing out of it. The screaming inside the bunker continued. The North-East entrance was the last entrance which we had not grenaded, and had a "comm" trench running out from it to the East for about 20 feet to another bunker. This bunker's entrance was partially collapsed and looked like someone had satchel charged it.
I crossed above the entrance to the North side of the entrance and crouched down, right side to the entrance, just above the "comm" trench with my right arm straight and my pistol pointed at the center of the entrance. The 2d Platoon Marine had to "borrow" a M-26 from the Marine with Gunny Moss covering the North-West entrance/hole. He approached the entrance from the South and had to step down into the trench because the trench walls were partially collapsed. With his right foot in the trench, left side to the entrance, He threw the M-26 into the entrance. He then pivoted to the right to step up and out of the trench to clear the entrance before the grenade would explode.
At that moment a NVA emerged from the entrance, in a crouch, firing his AK-47 on automatic. Simultaneously he ran into my pistol, which was pressed against his face just below his nose. I fired by reflex but the NVA had managed to fire several rounds towards the 2d Platoon Marine who was trying to get out of the way. He fell face down in the trench. My round took off the back of the NVA's head and spun him towards me.
Although he was now dead, he gripped the trigger in death and his AK continued to fire on automatic. With the muzzle a foot from me he put one round through the top of my holster and into the canteen on my right hip. Another round hit the lower part of my pistol's trigger guard which threw my arm straight up in the air. A third round hit the smoke grenade I had hanging from my right suspender strap. A fourth bullet hit my right temple, just to the right of my eye. I found out later another round "can opened" a three inch gash on the right side of my helmet about two inches up from its lower edge.
As the rounds hit me, I was spun to the right and slipped into the trench, with my back hitting the opposite side of the trench. The 2d Platoon Marine had fallen face down in the trench and the NVA fell face up on top of him with his AK still firing. As I fell I pushed the AK away from me with my right arm as I landed face up on the NVA's chest. As I landed on the NVA's chest, his AK finally stopped firing.
A second later, another NVA exited the bunker firing his AK. The second NVA put his right foot on my chest, with his left foot between my legs, and was firing over me at other Marines. I shoved my pistol up against his belt, but the pistol would not fire. The round which had hit the trigger guard had jammed my finger against the trigger, thus preventing me from releasing the trigger in order to fire another round.
Simultaneously with my attempt to shoot the NVA standing on me, the NVA's head disappeared then his right arm was blown off at the shoulder. Gunny Moss was standing over the entrance and had fired his shotgun into the NVA from 3-4 feet from behind. The decapitated, disarmed NVA fell forward face down onto me, with his chest over my face. The grenade the 2d Platoon Marine had thrown into the fourth entrance then went off. It had only been four to five seconds since he had released the grenade. Although I could not see anything because of the NVA laying on top of me, a third NVA emerged from the bunker and was shot by Gunny Moss and the other CP Marine. The third NVA landed on the second NVA laying on top of me.
I felt like I was smothering. I knew I was bleeding badly from the gunshot wound to my right temple. I had swallowed some of my own blood. The right side of my head and face felt like they were on fire. My right shoulder and right hand throbbed. The ringing in my head was deafening. All of a sudden the NVA was pulled off of me. A Marine, who I would find out thirty-two years later was Cpl. Ray Miceo from 1st Platoon E 2/3 reached down, grabbed my "H" harness and pulled me out of the trench. When he pulled me out, I was pulsing blood a foot or two out from my temple. In pulling me out, I gushed blood into Miceo's mouth. As he continued to pull me away from the bunker he started vomiting. A corpsman was on me even as Miceo pulled me clear. The corpsman tried to stop the head bleeding and bandage me, but I continued to gush blood. Another corpsman came and helped the first one. The first corpsman pinched the artery in my neck which reduced the bleeding.
They laid me on my left side, wound up, put bandages on the temple, then took my right hand with the trigger guard still jammed against my finger and my hand still grasping the receiver, against the bandage, then taped the pistol and bandage against my head. (Later in the hospital, the last of my wounds was losing my right eyebrow when the tape was removed.)(While the corpsman had been working on me another Marine had tried to remove the pistol from my hand. When he couldn't get it off, he cleared and field striped the pistol, removing the magazine, the slide, and the barrel, leaving only the receiver attached to my hand.
A few days later an armorer hack sawed the trigger guard off my finger which was quite swollen and black and blue. I asked for the receiver as a souvenir but they couldn't give it to me because the receiver was considered as a weapon.) I said an Act of Contrition and a Hail Mary and fought with myself to remain calm...don't panic...don't go into shock. I knew I was badly hit. I didn't want to ,nor would I let myself go into shock. (I remember when Lcpl. Collin and I first started moving towards the bunker, I heard and saw helicopters, several CH 46s and a H34, approaching Hill 580 from the North. These were the first helos we had seen since we had been dropped off on Hill 689 for our attack on Hill 580 the previous afternoon.)
After the two corpsmen had bandaged my head, they picked me up under my arms and ran with me towards the LZ just below Echo's lines. The two 46s landed on the flat part of the finger which was the LZ. The H-34, with CAT's Eyes on its nose hovered about four feet near the slopping side of the LZ. The two corpsmen took me to this helo and lifted and pushed me up as the crew pulled me in the side door. The first corpsman grabbed the helo crewman's hand and showed him how to pinch off the artery in my neck. The two crewman in the passenger compartment of the 34 pulled me back from the door. There were three or four other badly wounded Marines on the bird. They appeared to be unconscious. The door gunner laid me on my left side and continued to pinch my neck with both of his hands. I was still bleeding past the andages. The crew chief came over and put his hands on the bandages then kneeled on his hands to increase the direct pressure on the wound. The pain was searing. I was head forward looking out the side door. I was praying and looking out at the sky, the mountains, and the clouds. All of a sudden I felt warm allover, my vision blurred, sounds went away, and I passed out.
I woke up briefly at the evac hospital, Delta MED (Delta Company, 3d Medical Battalion) at Dong Ha. I was naked, on my back, on a damp stretcher with 4 or 5 people gathered around my head. The doctor asked me something, but I had problems hearing him and nothing to do with my face seemed to work. My face and head felt like they were aflame. Someone was fooling with my feet. I looked down with my left eye, my right eye was swollen shut. The person fooling with my feet was a priest anointing my feet. He was giving me the Sacrament of The Last Rites. I passed out and would not regain unconsciousness for three days.
Postscript:
One of the surgeons operating on me at Delta Med was a LCDR/CDR Powers. Three years later my son Kevin was born three years to the day of when I was shot. He was born at the Naval Hospital at Annapolis and required emergency surgery about three days after he was born. As my wife Jane and I were being briefed by the surgeon after he had operated on Kevin, I noticed he had a picture on his desk, obviously taken in
Vietnam. (Several officers were posed in front of a "C" hut) When I asked him with whom he had served in Vietnam. He replied Delta Company 3d Medical Battalion. I told him I had been a patient at Delta Med after I had been shot through the temple at Khe Sanh. He looked at me and looked at the scar on the right side of my head. He then told me
that he had been the doctor who had operated on me.
Thirty-two years after I was shot, my wife and I were in a rug store, about a mile and a half from our house buying a runner for the basement stairs. I immediately recognized the salesman. I had seen his face in my dreams. Even today, a couple of times a month, I relive in my dreams getting shot. At first these dreams were nightmares. I knew what was going to happen but couldn't get out of the dream. Now I just have the dream; it is
no longer a nightmare. The salesman was the Marine who had pulled the dead NVA off
of me and dragged me clear of the bunker. His name was Ray Miceo and he only lived a few miles from me. When my wife was finished talking to the salesman, I said "You were in the Marines in Vietnam in1968. You were in 2/3 in April of 68 on Dead Man's Hill (the name 2/3 had given to Hill 580)." He looked puzzled or a little shocked. I said "Do you remember a red headed lieutenant getting shot through the head?" He replied "How can
I ever forget that." I replied "I am that lieutenant." Ray looked a little unsteady, he
thought that I had died and he himself was wounded and evacuated a few days after the Battle for Dead Man's Hill. Ray wrote a letter to the local paper "The Freelance Star" concerning the "miracle" he had seen. the "Freelance Star article was later
republished in the Marine Corps Magazine "The Leatherneck" in 2000.
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