TRIBUTE TO RTO RAYMOND WESLEY
My RTO (Radio-Telephone Operator) in Nam, Raymond Wesley, doesn't deal with Vietnam very well. He and I are 2 of 5 survivors of an ambush on Sept. 30, 68 at Duc-Lap. C/2/35 basically lost the 2nd Platoon on that day. I was WIA on that day, but the physical wounds are nothing compared to the mental anguish of seeing so many young soldiers killed and maimed in horrendous fashion and not being able to stop it. I'm not sure Raymond or myself will ever make peace with that days events. Hopefully Raymond will visit soon and get in touch with some of the other 2/9th people and begin to realize that the good guys didn't always win. Oddly Raymond became my RTO as punishment for getting in trouble with the B battery 1st Sgt. I had Raymond sent back to the Battery after he had only been out for a month. He was a good person and RTO, but that was much too serious a job to have someone doing it as punishment.
Lt Don Blankin
Webmaster Comments: This account of someone being "sent out to an FO Party" in the field of combat as "punishment" just confirms it happened repeatedly in the history of 105mm howitzer units serving in Vietnam.
Dennis
Dauphin
Webmaster, www.themightyninth.org