Kent Wonders Remembers LZ Margo (continued)
Company E is Rendered Non-Effective
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The attack stopped as suddenly as it had started.
Echo Company commander Capt John Cregan in the DMZ. Echo was hardest-hit in the attack on LZ Margo. Photo courtesy of Kent Wonders.
Probably my first reaction was to roll over, pause, and thank God that I was alive. As we unpiled ourselves, the yells of, “Corpsman, corpsman!” could be heard coming from all around.
I was dazed and tried to take in what had just happened.
While I scrambled the ten meters to the CP, I could see several critically wounded nearby. One of battalion radiomen was dying and several others were badly wounded. The battalion med personnel were immediately overwhelmed by the many wounded Marines.
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Officially the second barrage started at 1900H (7PM) and consisted of 64 82mm rounds. I disagree with the time; it was earlier because it was not dusk, and I was lying among the wounded who were awaiting evacuation.
This time the center of the impact area seemed to move northwest toward the area of the 81mm mortar platoon. For sure, some rounds were also hitting in the landing zone and command post area.
When this barrage subsided, once again the noises of explosions were replaced by more calls for corpsmen.
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The Command Chronology, at this point in the narrative says: “At this time Company E was considered to be non-effective.”
That is to say, they had too many WIA and KIA to function.
