| My HSTs (I know they were Shore Party Marines, but
I have always thought of them as "my" HSTs) did, as a matter of routine,
what would have, in any other circumstances, been deserving of many heroic
awards. I do not recall any medevac, resupply or external load hook-up
where the zone was not "hot". That came with the territory.
Daily when the weather allowed, and often several times a day, those Marines
stood in the open in those zones under the helicopters and performed tasks
without which we grunts and the helo crewmen could not have survived.
The antiaircraft rounds were always whipping by and the mortar rounds were
often "on the way" and they knew it, yet they did their duty 'till the
bird was gone, then ran like hell and dove into the nearest hole.
(I often thought that the way they stood, with their backs to the NVA guns
as they guided the helos in, was a superb gesture of disdain.)
Their courage and resolve is the stuff of legend, and all of us on that hill remember it. That some may not now wear some symbol of it on their chest in no way diminishes the heroism they daily displayed. Be aware that we who shared that time with them, and depended on them utterly, know the magnificence of their performance. They can forever look themselves in the eye when shaving and know that, in those horrible conditions, they courageously did their duty. I salute each of them individually! India Six Actual |
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