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Mike Guthrie with my wife.


Joseph John Reilly
February 26, 1966
Age 19
MICHAEL H GUTHRIE MY STORY

Vietnam 1965 and 1966.

Alpha or "A" Company of 2nd Battalion of the 173d or 2/503d -- had already seen plenty of action especially search and destroy operations and patrols, but this particular evening (2/25/66) found us at a Base Camp about 4 or 5 miles outside of Bien Hoa. A few of us were talking together and dreaming of when and what we would do when we got back home!

One young guy named Graves fitted right into my day-dreaming when he described how he wanted to go get his girlfriend and get a cheesburger and chocolate malt and take her to a drive-in movie.

Well the very next day (2/26/66), real early we were assembled to go on a search and destroy mission nearby Phu-Loi. We were going at below company strength, which was supposed to be approximately 120 men. The man on point with RTO kept calling back to the CO that something wasn't quite right but the CO wouldn't listen. He told him to keep pressing on toward the objective set forth. It was hot that day, but almost every day over there was always hot. But this day in particular seemed especially hot!

I felt very sorry for a man in my squad, Joseph Reilly -- he was sweating like a horse and looked completely exhausted. I took a few pictures of him early that day and I'm glad I did. Later, and kindof suddenly, it seems, we walked right into the enemy's ambush that they had set up for us. They were trenched in and dug in well.

They hit us with everything so quickly almost no one had time to breathe. The CO and LT's started calling for artillery support but at 30 miles away we were almost out of their range -- except for the 175's. They weren't enough so air strikes were requested. But something went terribly wrong with the air-strikes too. Perhaps the pilots couldn't get a good enough read on our smoke but whatever happened they had to be confused. The F105's dropped cluster bombs (yellow with fins) on us instead of the enemy.

By nightfall, the headcount of our company was down to between 47 and 50 men. Joseph Reilly, who was in my squad got killed. Reilly  (you can see what he looked like in the photo to your left, he's the one with the steel pot), was a very brave and corageous soldier and he knew how to follow orders well. Truly he was my closest friend over there. But all of the others who got killed or wounded were also very brave. Graves, the fellow who told me he wanted to go home and take his girlfriend to a drive-in movie, didn't get to fulfill his dream -- he got killed too.

Another GI died in my arms. His lower half was almost all blown away. I knew there was not a lot of time for him but the last thing he said was, "Give me a drink of water." In the time it took for me to reach for my canteen and lean back, he passed. The whole battle was Hell.

This is about all I'm able to write for now.

Signed your friend and friend of those I served with for Freedom,

Michael Guthrie
"A" Co., 2nd Bn., 503rd Infantry
173d Airborne Brigade (Sep.)


©2002 WEBH
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