Trotter Contact -- Range 3, 2 February 1971
2 February 1971 -- a trail contact after the move from Silver
Days after D Company tore down FSB Silver and moved to Fontaine, Jim Garvin -- now gunner of Range 3, a squad rebuilt from the old CP team plus six new replacements -- set up on a trotter (a jungle trail). On 2 February 1971 three VC came down the trail. Garvin squeezed off a round and his M-60 jammed on a ruptured shell; for a moment he and his assistant gunner, Vince Carbone, were exposed behind cover. As Carbone remembered it (in a 2020 account), one VC looked straight at them with his AK-47 ready -- then ducked back behind a big banyan tree as other squad members opened up.
The enemy was driven off; the unit captured two weapons, including its first AK-50 (a folding-stock AK), and a little rice. Sgt Joe Smith had a thumb shot off in the fight.
If you served in Range Platoon, D Co 2/8 Cav, in early 1971, we'd like to hear from you about the 2 February 1971 trail contact in which Sgt Joe Smith was wounded. Vince Carbone and Jim Garvin remember it; we're trying to fix the date, grid, and the full squad.
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