Rich and Me in Oki bar
Rich TodayRich was a friend I made in Oki, we spent a lot of
time in strip bars, never having a lot of money we
always were barrowing money from each other.
It was in Oki that he volunteered for Recon Scout,
that is the red beret that they wore in the first photo.
Rich was out front on a mission when we had a run in with
NVA, and we called in for artillery support, well the first
round of shells came right in on top of Rich and some other
L Company Marines I don't remember how many dead,
but I remember many wounded Marines including Rich
who had a hunk of shrapnel the size of a fifty cent piece
right in the lower middle of his back spine, he was in
tremendous pain, no matter what part of his body you
tried to move or touch he would just scream. I tried to
tell him that he was going to be ok, just talking, trying to
keep him from going into shock. Well a heavy fog set in
on the mountain top where we had these wounded and dead,
a chopper could not see to land and pick then up, and this
went on for two days, the medics ran out of morphine and other
medical supplies for the wounded, it was a real mess. We had to
try to do something for these guys, so we tried to make a big
clearing so the chopper could land when he could finally see us.
We chopped down trees with only a dull E-tool to work with, but
with everyone helping we made a large clearing, shooting flairs
up into the foggy sky for the chopper to hopefully see. Well the
fog lifted the third day, I helped put Rich MacKenzie on the
chopper, the last words he said to me was I'll get the five dollars
I borrowed from you in Oki back to you, I said man forget that,
just get well. I never heard back about what happened to him, I
checked the wall in DC for his name to see if he died, it's not
there.
I finally made contact with Rich, thanks to Tiger Dave for getting me his email!!
Here is a little of what he had to say
February 15th, 1967
When I got wounded, a 105mm howitzer round went off or <
dropped in about 20 feet behind me. There was a tree in front of me a
couple feet away. I saw the flash and heard the explosion.
It was just a fraction of a second, I knew I was hit pretty bad:
I couldn't move my legs and feet. Had no feeling in them from the
middle of my back, down to my toes. I was sitting Indian fashion
with my legs crossed and my rifle across my lap.
The guys near me took off my backpack and straightened out my legs.
By that time Stretch, the corpsman was there. Put a pressure bandage
on the wound and the rest is history. The piece of shrapnel, about an inch and a half long
and 3/8" wide hit my spine. The spine is what stopped it. I got back about 55 to 60 percent of
the feeling and motor coordination. My legs are still spastic. I'm drawing 100% from the VA.
I have a rating too for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The PTSD is under control.
It will always be with me. You learn to live with it. Boy, I had a lot of anger.
I really felt betrayed. Friendly Fire. Joe Gallegos donated his air mattress for a stretcher.
I still owe him for that. Last I knew, he was living in Ogden, Utah.
He came out to my parents home in the SF Bay area for dinner.
He ended up at Oak Knoll Naval in Oakland a few weeks behind me.