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HERE
The day we lost our Battalion Chief Corpsman HMC "Doc" Brown
Doc went to the bush with a 20 man patrol from Alpha Company; the patrol was successfully inserted by helicopter at approximately 1400 hours on the 25th of January '67. The patrol consisted of 16 Marine Enlisted, 2 Officers, 2nd Lt. J.E. Siler and 1st Lt. J.R. Thompson and 2 Navy Corpsmen, Doc Brown being one the other unknown at this time. The squads involved were 1st Squad, 1st Platoon and 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company.
Contact with the enemy was expected for this patrol as evidenced by the following quotation from the Patrol Report filed 28, January '67. All of the events described below have been taken/re-constructed from the Command Chronology for January '67 as filed by Lt. Col Wilder, Bn CO.
2. Mission: Conduct reconnaissance within assigned area, locating trails and harbor sites. Establish day OP?s and ambushes on likely avenues of VC movement. Engage the enemy with SAF and /or supporting arms, making every effort to capture documents, weapons, and prisoners. Patrol will act as forward observers for on call artillery.
Note: While the Patrol Report uses the term VC, I believe a more correct term would have been NVA considering the enemys conduct and willingness to engage with predominately full automatic rifles.
The area of the Patrol was an extremely rough and dangerous chunk of ground known to have a high concentration of enemy. According our brothers who actively worked this particular region contact was almost always made resulting in numerous firefights. Quoting correspondence with Cpl. Terry Black, radio operator:
I'm also sketchy about where they were but it seems like they were west or northwest of Hue', maybe in RZ 2. I never was in RZ 2 without making contact with VC or NVA. It was a very bad place to be.
After safe harboring over the night of the 25th, the Patrol moved out to conduct its mission. At approximately 1030 hours 26 January '67, the team came under heavy small arms fire in an ambush set by the VC. Sgt. Howard H. Dean, Alpha Company of Harrodsburg, Kentucky was running Point and was immediately cut down in the opening seconds. According to the Patrol Report one of the Patrol Leaders, I assume either Lt Siler or Thompson was also wounded in the initial fire.
The Point team withdrew about 20 meters while the Second team attacked the enemy positions successfully to retrieve the 2 wounded. According to my memory Doc Brown was said to have been in the forefront of this attack wanting to get to the wounded and tend to them. Once the entire team was re-united and consolidated it again received heavy small arms fire from the attacking enemy. At 1045, an elapsed time of only 15 minutes HE artillery was called and walked in danger close, less than 100 meters. 42 rounds of HE arty were fired but the team had to call for a cease fire as things had gotten too close and they were experiencing shrapnel due to the tight quarters.
Around this time word was spread through the Battalion CP that "Docs" patrol was involved in an intense firefight. A crowd of us gathered quickly outside the Comm. Shack. Corporal Terry Black, Bravo Company, Team Sidewinder was on Radio Watch and in contact with the Patrol relaying information to the Battalion and Company Officers who had gathered in the Shack and those of us outside. The team was in severe trouble and its radio operator kept the mike keyed open as much as possible.
At 1045 when the Arty Support had been called MedEvac was also called for the wounded, unfortunately Sgt Dean was already dead. The MedEvac chopper arrived on the scene at approximately 1100 hours and immediately started lowering the hoist to retrieve our wounded and 1 dead brothers. The enemy increased its small arms fire with the helo now being the main target; within seconds the chopper had taken 43 rounds of small arms and had to withdraw. The enemy had continued to move in and the patrol was now taking grenades as well as small arms fire. Huey gunship's on station were then called and made 4 passes in support of the team. Things had gotten very hot and heavy. It was during this portion of the battle that Doc Brown received his fatal wounds while tending his Marines; the second patrol leader was also wounded at this time.
At 1115 hours only 30 minutes after initial contact the patrol requested Quick Reaction support as well as fixed wing.
The After Action Report states that once fixed wing entered the fray enemy small arms fire diminished although they continued to try to maneuver closer to the Team. Further details encompassing the time period from 1115 hours to 1330 hours when the embattled Team linked up with the Quick Reaction Force are not available either in the report or my memory of things. It does state that after hooking up with the Reaction Force they were all able to move to another location and successfully extract everyone.
Corporal Black received the WIA/KIA codes from the field via radio I assume during the lull following arrival of the fixed wing. When he checked those codes, and word was passed to us outside the Comm Shack, shock took hold of us all; Doc Brown was gone as was Sgt Dean who I did not personally know.
I was not the only member of the Battalion to take Doc Brown's loss hard. He was the Battalion's Senior Corpsman, was not expected to go to the bush, but wanted to very badly. I cried that night and was not alone, I have thought of him often over the past 40 years as I am sure others who knew him have as well.
Cliff Schoeffler Corporal, '67, H&S Co, Phu Bai
Final note: Not many Battalions lost their Chief Corpsman in action, the fact that we did is indicative of the caliber of all of the men Marines and Corpsman who made up 3rd Recon. We were and remain truly brothers.