12 Feb 2007 Corporal Heckman was in charge of the armory for our battery. He was not a personal friend but he was a super nice guy who treated us "Boots" very kindly. I want him to be remembered here. I was with him the day he was killed and will always remember him. He was MIA for a few months until his body was found and his status was changed to KIA. A few days after the firefight our convoy came back through the area where we had the firefight and I always wondered why we did not stop and see if we could find him. From a battery-mate, Ron Taylor rtnmsp@aol.com The photo is courtesy of his sister Jean

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall The 1st Bn, 11th Marines' Command Chronology describes what happened as follows: "On the morning of 1 February, the 1st Battalion (-), 11th Marines dispatched an ammunition resupply convoy to Battery B's position near Nam Hoa. The convoy encountered and overcame road blocks until reaching approximate grid YD774196 where it was stopped by enemy snipers (at 1530H). Personnel of the convoy returned fire killing eight of the NVA and wounding a ninth whom they captured. During the action, one vehicle had broken down and this delay permitted a large force of the enemy to mount a mortar and small arms attack on the rear of the convoy. Convoy security elements (with one Ontos) were sent to the rear of the column to extricate the vehicles under attack and to search for stragglers. One Marine, Cpl Lawrence E. Heckman, 2153703, could not be found, and the convoy, still under fire, was forced to leave the area, arriving at the Battery B area at 1800H. In addition to one MIA, five 1st Battalion (-), 11th Marines personnel were WIA (medevac) and two of the security force were WIA (medevac)."

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