Petty Officer Jerry W. King and I were both attached to Mike Company in different platoons.  I had only known of him in passing.  The first time I saw him in action was on a mine sweep patrol up Route One, most likely during October of 1967.  This was my second or third mine sweep up Route One from Camp Evans toward Quang Tri.  On this day we knew there was a mine out there somewhere because normally there would have been fifteen or more children tagging along with us, this day there was only one.  Based on this information another mine sweep patrol was sent out by Mike Company.

There were many civilian cars, possibly more than 100, between my patrol and the second one when the explosion occurred (In hindsight it had to be a command detonated bomb).  I jumped out of the truck and ran back to the car taking the full force of the explosion to find three or four wounded Vietnamese who I found out later were a school principal and teachers from Hue. 

As I started to treat them, a second pair of hands appeared to help and I said, "If you are aren't a Corpsman get the hell out of my way."  The answer I got was, "Bill its me, Jerry King."  That started our long standing relationship.

On 1 February 1968 , Jerry had just walked into our medical bunker when we heard a mortar leave the tube from 881N.  Within a few seconds we heard another enemy mortar leave the tube.  The first round landed and the call for "Corpsman Up" was heard.  Jerry, knowing full well another enemy round was on the way and that he stood a good chance of being hit also, dashed from the medical bunker to assist a fallen Marine.  As Jerry was tending to the wounded Marine, the second mortar hit wounding Jerry also.

Now there were two in need of assistance.  I rushed to the scene to find Jerry ignoring his wounds as he tended to Cpl. Kenneth W. Burns who sustained a wound on the right side of his neck and was in extreme pain.  It was only after we jointly bandaged and stabilized Cpl. Burns that Jerry allowed me to examine and treat the shrapnel wound to his right thigh. 

Jerry and Cpl. Burns were evacuated from the hill.  Jerry went to the hospital ship and after recovering was sent to another company to complete his six months service "in the bush."  When he came back to the Battalion CP.  Col. Studt, the commander of 3d Battalion, established the policy of sending the CP out anytime there was more than one company in the field.  Therefore, Jerry had more experience in "the field" than most corpsmen.

Jerry was an outstanding Corpsman.  I was always glad to have him at my side when the going got tough.  He was always ready to immediately answer the call of "Corpsman Up" when it came.

All these years I've wanted to know the name of the Corpsman who saved my life.  If he hadn't got to me when he did, I believe I would have bled to death.  I was still conscience and blood was running down the hill like a stream.

Kenneth W. Burns
October 15, 2007