The Battle March 11 1968

Through The Valley Page 187 From reality, now only a memory Pfc. Tony May crawled over to Zbozien to give him some protection when the first smoke rounds struck between the line of hootches and NVA positions. He and the other men in the 3rd Platoon were asking whether they would survive the day when Fritz and his stalwarts joined them. Pfc. Tony May remembers the time: “ They sure were a welcome sight! The lead was still flying strong and cut down one of these guys as he passed not two feet in front of me. He was hit right through the elbow. Shortly after the NVA fire slackened a bit and provided the men a chance to withdraw. Two men helped Zbozien to his feet, while May and others grabbed extra rifles and equipment and started for the stream-bed. There were not enough able-bodied men to take the wounded and all of the weapons and gear. A radio set on the company’s frequency, four rifles, and 3rd Platoon’s four dead were left behind. Abandoning his friends to enemy soldiers who were known to mutilate dead U.S. soldiers made Tony May sick. Leaving the dead was not a decision that Fritz made lightly, but his first priority was to the living. He feared that burdening himself with the dead men would cost him more casualties. (This is only a short piece in this book about a few Battles “my brother” Tony was in) It’s kind of cool having your brother in a book although, I wish it would have been a different kind of book.