Phase Line Green by Nicholas Warr

Author:Nicholas Warr [Warr, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612512754
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Chapter Ten

Coping with Disaster:

A Dead Dog Day

Afternoon

14 February 1968

Early the following morning, Scott Nelson visited the Charlie One CP group, or rather what was left of it. From the look on his face, it was immediately obvious that the news he was about to break was not good.

The numbness that had taken command of my mind and body after Estes had died was still firmly in control. I could hear and understand Nelson’s words, and I was cognizant of their meaning, but I couldn’t establish eye contact with him, and I’m positive that any responses I made to what he said that morning were, at best, totally conditioned responses.

Nelson said, “Charlie One is no longer an effective fighting unit, so we’re going to take the men you have left and split them up to reinforce Charlie Two and Charlie Three. Alpha Company has regrouped, and their new company commander, Second Lieutenant Pat Polk, will be bringing them into your area of responsibility and relieving you within the hour. As soon as they take over your positions, bring your remaining men and join me at the company CP. We’re a half block behind the center of Charlie Two’s positions, in a courtyard.”

I remember that a part of me felt an overwhelming sense of relief that we were being withdrawn from the hell that was phase line green, while another part of me felt a heavy measure of sorrow that Charlie One was dead. But all these emotions were muted. I felt as though I had been immersed in a vat of novocain. A disoriented feeling of unreality had taken hold of me, and my exterior self was completely numb and distinctly separated from my interior emotions.

About an hour later, Alpha Company’s Marines moved into our positions, eyes wide open in anticipation of the fighting that was ahead of them. Alpha Company had already been bloodied and had lost their company commander and much of the company CP group before the fighting had really started (was that really only yesterday?). Now they had the further shock of seeing what we looked like when they took over our positions. We must have looked like hell.

Just prior to Alpha Company’s arrival, I had ordered a head count and found out that there were twenty-three Marines remaining in Charlie One. Fifty-one of us had arrived at phase line green yesterday morning, and after one day of fighting, twenty-three remained.

After we joined up with the Charlie Company CP group, Charlie One was officially disbanded. Eleven of the Charlie One survivors, including Doc English and Benny Benware, were directed to join up with Charlie Two. The remaining ten were assigned to Charlie Three. Doc Louder-milk was reassigned to the company CP group and was made the Charlie Company corpsman. As the twenty-third survivor of Charlie One’s long and deadly day on phase line green, I reported to Scott Nelson at the Charlie Company CP. Charlie One was now officially deactivated; more appropriately, Charlie One was dead.

I was

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.