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started to fire at where I thought I'd
seen muzzle blasts, but also to try to get Jones to come to his senses.
I was really starting to worry! We got the medic down, he was in good
shape and could climb down the ladder. Then Jones followed me down - at
last. He remembers the incident, but didn't know that it was I who was
dumb enough to follow him.
So, we took the ground up to
the top of the hill by Monkey Point. As we left the point of departure
at the water tower, one of the troopers who was on the tower with me
took a round just below the right edge of his helmet from the area in
front of A Co. So much for liaison! I never knew his name.
I see from the map that the B Co area was
considerably wider than A Co's but I didn't realize it at the time. As
we took that area, we had gotten same rifle fire from the shaft shown
within the 150 foot contour line so we had piled some wood, rocks and
other junk in front of the entrance to warn us if any attempt was made
to get out.
B Co's first platoon was closest to that
door, which was our right flank, and the rest of B Co in a rather loose
line extending north.
After dawn on the day of the explosion,
things were quiet after we had sent a few small patrols out a very short
way from where we had spent the night. It was getting hot and I have the
impression it was about 0800. My ankle was giving me fits and I was
standing alongside a (telephone?) pole as shown on your map. I had
leaned my M1 against the pole and was eating from my canteen cup that
combination of dry cereal and milk and sugar to which water could be
added. A 1st Lt Winston Samuels, who had joined us before Mindoro, and I
were watching the tank as it fired in the A Co area. Part of the 1st Bn
Commo section was gathered on the west slope of the same slope, just
below me. Samuels said: "This is the strangest modern war - no quarter
is asked or expected." He took a few steps away from me. The earth
erupted. Then everything happened at once. There was no sound that I
heard. Samuels was swept out of my vision by a boulder about three feet
across that bounced off the ground alongside of him. I fell against the
pole with it between me and the largest area of explosion. I thought
that I should try to get my knees separated since one rock would smash
both of them. Somebody fell against me who was hit by a rock; I felt the
blow and heard him grunt from the impact. I don't know who it was and it
never occurred to me to find out - I guess I was too busy to remember
him.
Flames burst out of the doorway of the
shaft behind me so I knew that there would be no danger of an attack
from there. As I stood up, there seemed to be only a few guys who also
stood. Everything and everybody was covered with a shower of dirt and
rocks. The green ponchos of the Bn Hqs were no longer green. Troopers
were trying to help guys more injured than they were. Some were moaning,
unable to move. Some were still, never to move again. LG - I took one
look at Jim Halloran and knew that he was in that category. I held my
rifle and thought this would be a hell of a time for us to suffer an
attack. Things get mixed up after that - I don't remember the 3d Bn
arriving, I don't remember leaving the area, anything. I do recall that
for a long time after that everybody ducked if there was any loud noise.
As we were getting to board
the LCIs to go back to Mindoro there was this guy in a full body cast,
to include part of his face and head, lying on a stretcher on the beach
by us. We were fiddling around with a wrecked tank, I don't recall that
it was "our" tank, and somebody set off the fire extinguisher which
scared the atabrine out of us. As I returned to the area from my flight
(somehow the ankle seamed to improve for that 10 second period) somehow
I looked at the stretcher guy. It was Samuels! He couldn't speak and I
didn't know what the hell to say so I asked him if he wanted water and
then I realized that I couldn't give it to him since he couldn't raise
his head.
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