The following is drawn from an interview conducted by Jim Garvin, a Range Company member who was not himself present at the contact. Corroborating recollections from Kirk Davis and SSG Stan Dillon, gathered in the same round of interviews, are set apart below rather than folded into my own account.
I remember a terrific adrenaline rush once the shooting started — I felt like Superman — and I went right, up toward the front.
I saw the instant Dillon got hit. I saw Stan's shoulder explode.
I saw Tom Poore carry Stan Sargent across the creek.
When I got hit myself, I called for a medic. The answer came back: they couldn't come to me, I'd have to get back to them. So I crawled — it felt like fifty feet, though it might only have been fifteen, I honestly can't say for sure. When I finally reached Doc Brothers, he told me, "Sorry, we're out of morphine. Here, bite on this stick." After that, I have no memory of anything until I woke up at the 24th Evac Hospital.
From Kirk Davis, recalling the moment he brought me across the creek: Stan Dillon was there with a thousand-yard stare, his chin down. There were no medics from Cat helping.
From SSG Stan Dillon, on the moments before he was hit: About twelve seconds before I got hit, I remember Bott was to my left, though I'm not sure who was to my right. We'd noticed commo wire strung through the trees, and I thought to myself, "Oh shit, we're in a bunker complex." I remember there were two Chicom mines up in the trees.
After the firefight started, Joe Hall crawled up and asked, "Where do you want me?" I said, "What are you doing up here?"
When we reached Doc Brothers, I realized my finger had been shot off. I told him I didn't want morphine — I needed to get back up there with my men. That wasn't to be.
