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SEE ENTIRE BATTLE REPORT - MAY 27, 1969 CLICK HERE

Excerpt:

LT Dick Orndoff – Acting Company Commander ( Flown into the battle after C Company CO CPT Richard Wandke was wounded several times)

“The company was in two groups with the smaller point group separated from the main group.  Both groups were under fire and/or had been recently. CPT Wandke was with the point group, hit 3-4 times.  When I got to him, he was propped up against a tree and said to me ‘Where you been stud? I’ve been waiting for you’. 

I will never forget how calm he seemed in the middle of all that stuff.”

Finding CPT Wandke, LT Orndoff begins the arduous task of familiarizing himself with the situation and analyzing the next move. With Wandke’s debriefing, the young lieutenant begins the task that he’s been assigned and ordered to do. Not envious, under the conditions he was put in.

As enemy fire increases, Carter’s attempt to reach his chopper ends as he approaches the 2nd Platoon. He is hit by sniper fire.   Men see him go down near to where 2nd platoon is hunkered down. The Commander is hit several times.

SP4 Bill Kahl, a member of 2nd platoon, was lying flat against the dirt when he saw LTC Carter get hit. He remembers that Carter was:  “...shooting at the enemy with an M16, then he got hit just as he crossed a small trail.”  

Reports differ. Wandke thinks LTC Carter was on the ground for about a half an hour. Orndoff believes he; “...was dead 10 minutes after he was on the ground.”   SP4 Bill Kahl of 2nd platoon said, “He wasn’t there long.”