14 Mar 2007 Good day, fellow Americans. I am Terry L. Garrett, a fellow platoon member with Mike Linville. We served in A Company, 1/61 Infantry, 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division in northern I corps along the DMZ. Our company, as well as a tank company, were called on to rescue a downed chopper crew and a Ranger Team that had been shot down northeast of Fire Support Base A-4. We rushed to the deadly scene to find the chopper partially submerged in bloody diesel-and-death smelling water. We quickly formed a rescue perimeter and quickly plunged in and began pulling bodies from the wreckage. We then began to take a heavy enemy mortar barrage. You never forget the sound of a screaming mortar as it tears toward the ground. There was very little cover that day ... we laid flat or crouched behind the very few rocks there were. Mike took a bad hit. Our medic and I did all we could to save Mike, but it was in vain. I asked the doc "What can I do?" He looked at me and said "Say a prayer, man, he's dead." Mike was to leave in just a few days to meet his fiancee in Hawaii and get married. GOD REST HIS SOUL. I think nine young men died that horrid day. Whenever I hear howling wind or rustling grass it sometimes reminds me of a place far away when death filled the hot air, and I think of losing a good buddy. Respectfully, Sgt Terry L. Garrett default1951@yahoo.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall During the night of 19/20 September Recon Team 1-8 from P Company, 75th Rangers was to be inserted into the Demilitarized Zone immediately north of the fire base at Con Thien. The low-level insertion was by a UH-1H (tail number 67-17597) from C Company, 158th Aslt Helo Bn. The UH-1H didn't make it; it was hit by .51 caliber fire and crashed right on the southern boundary of the DMZ. A platoon from A Company 1/61st Infantry was in a defensive position in the area and was sent to secure the crash site. The mortar fire which was received killed two men from Alpha 1/61. The eleven men who died in the helo and recovery operation were Aircrew, C Co, 158th AHB 1LT Albert M. Finn, Lansdale, PA, pilot WO Larry G. Baldwin, Montgomery County, AL, copilot SGT William T. Dotson, Dallas, TX, gunner SGT Dan O. Felts, Flagstaff, AZ, crew chief Team 1-8, P Co, 75th Infantry SGT Harold E. Sides, Dallas, TX SP4 Raymond H. Apellido, Bakersfield, CA SP4 Anthony J. Gallina, Maplewood, MO SP4 Dale A. Gray, Mesa, AZ PFC Glenn G. Ritchie, Mount Pleasant, NC A Co, 1st Bn, 61st Infantry 1LT Richard H. Stube, Helena, MT (Bronze Star "V") PFC Michael T. Linville, Madison Heights, MI

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