Welcome to Club Services'
Vietnam
Diary
Contributed
by real Vietnam Veterans.
Francis J. McCloskey and I
found each other on the net about
eight months ago. He was a machine gunner in the company I was in. We
have been talking over old times and I sent him copies of the memorials
I did for the other men I contacted you about. We worked together on
this one. You may need to polish up the language a little, but it is
about a real soldier. Do whatever you need to do to put it in shape.
Frank's portion comes first:
I was a machine-gunner with
the 1st platoon of Company "C," 2d Battalion
(Airborne), 502d Infantry in the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Divsion
when SSG Reynolds joined our platoon. He
was the first Squad Leader and later became our Platoon Sgt.
I recall that he didn't like
anything about the rear area or the
state-side army which is probably why they never promoted him. He was
good in the field, hardcore and the most fearless man I've ever met.
It's a shame that no one, other than his men, recognized his leadership
ablities. He was a "soldier's soldier" and spoke his mind when
it came
to welfare of his troops.
On 18 May 67 our platoon went
to the aid of an element of B Company who
were ambushed on a water run. We were on hill 424 in Duc Pho province
and they were in heavy contact taking casualties. Our platoon walked
into a bunker complex and we immediately came under heavy fire. I was
shot in the back of the head during the initial contact and someone
took my machinegun, thinking I was dead.
SSG Reynolds showed up at my
side cursing the "Chinks" and calling for
an M-79 man and his grenade launcher. The individual who shot me was
still firing on us and SSG Reynolds was determined to get him.
What amazed and inspired me
was that SSG Reynolds showed no fear. He
wasn't hugging the ground like everyone else. He just knelt there beside
me like he was bullet proof. When the M-79 man didn't show up, SSG
Reynolds walked back through the all that firing, grabbed the M-79 and
came back to me still cursing the "Chinks".
During his stay with me on
hill 424, SSG Reynolds continued to engage
that bunker even though he took one round through the bicep. He
continually exposed himself to fire so much that his canteen and load
bearing equipment were riddled with bullet holes.
During the medevac, I heard
SSG Reynolds arguing with the Lt. that he
just had a flesh wound and did not want to leave the field. They took
him out of there kicking and screaming.
Later at the aid station, I
heard him looking for a ride back out to
hill 424. He was bitching about being stuck in the rear with a bunchof
'REMF'S when he should be out there where fighting the "Chinks".
I'm pretty sure he got his
ride because he never appeared at the evac
hospital like he was supposed to.
SSG Reynolds paid me a visit just before I left the aid staion. He came
to show me his arm and all the holes the "Chink's shot through his
fatigue shirt.
I'll never forget SSG. Harvey
C. Reynolds, he's one of the rare onesyou
would follow to hell and back. Frank J. McCloskey
This part by John Yeager, Jr.
Harvey C. Reynolds was a good
old boy from Florida who was our Platoon
Sergeant in 1967. He was a Regular. He had made one or both of the
combat jumps with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team in Korea.
He had also been to demolitions school.
Once, a man stepped on a "boucing
betty" mine, which fires when you
step off of it. He felt the plunger go down and froze. He told the
rest of us that he was on a mine, and our Engineer
came to the spot and dug around his boot, placed a big rock down on
it as the troop took his foot out, and they moved away. The Engineer
blew it in place with C-4. While the replacement of
the foot with a rock was going on SSG Reynolds stood three feet
away. He didn't have to endanger himself, but it made the two men
who were involved that much more steady.
He didn't have a whole lot
of education. He called the enemy bad names
that were already out of date; it was like he was calling Germans
"Huns." He would not have liked the idea of political correctness.
He
was just a good old Regular like Kipling was talking about when he
wrote "The backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man."
He was always doing things
like replacing the firing caps in
fragmentation grenades with the ones from smoke grenades,
so they would blow instantly, and setting them out with tripwires
to make booby traps.. I kept away from him when he was putting
them out or getting them in.
When I got wounded he was
up on a little rise in the ground and
he yelled at me "Comeup here, I can see them." I said something
rude to him because that meant they could see him, too. The
other writer of this memorial says they shot off his bootlaces
there, but he didn't get hurt. He went back to Vietnam to do
another tour and was killed.
A big salute for you, Sarge.
I think he'd love it that we remembered
him this long and wrote this up for him.
John Yeager, Jr
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