off, followed by pop flares going up and M-60 Machine Gun fire from the bunker down the line from us.  I don't know what we would have done without the pop flares, as when the flares went out the NVA would start talking and coming through the wire.  We took out as many of them as we could with M-60, M-16 Fire and grenades.  At first, we couldn't understand why it took so many rounds to stop them, until we learned, later, they were drugged up on opium.  The mortar teams fired rounds outside the parameter to stop them.

When the last of our ammo was being passed down the line, we got the word to move to one side of the firebase that I can't remember.  This was when I heard the Sit-Reps coming over the radio from Russell that it also was under ground attack by NVA Suicide Sappers.  All I can remember after this was our own artillery rounds were fired on our position from another firebase.  Until we realized that is was our own artillery rounds coming in, I thought that this was the end of my life on Earth.

At daylight, the NVA had retreated, but continued firing mortars on the firebase.  The NVA that were killed in the wire, and in front of it, were gathered up and strip-searched for documents, grenades, weapons, etc.  We found opium in their pockets and then realized why they were so hard to stop.  We also found "Chieu-Hoi" leaflets on them.  We took the bodies next to what looked like a trash dump and laid them out.  We then put their weapons, grenades, RPG rounds, Ammo boxes, etc., into separate piles.  At the same time, med-evac choppers were coming in to pick up our dead and wounded.  They had a hard time coming in as the weather was very foggy.

The remainder of our company humped in to help relieve Company-H.  Patrols were sent outside of the parameter and into the outlaying areas around the base of Neville.  Blood trails were found heading North of the existing trail network.  'Can't remember if any bodies were found, or prisoners taken.  'Don't know for sure how long we were on Neville after the ground attack.  We were choppered either to Stud, or Dong Ha, for a two-day standdown.

One of the rumors we heard during the standdown was there were so many individual acts of bravery seen on both Neville and Russell during the ground attack that the command would have to have a dozen clerks brought in just to be able to type up all the orders and citations for medals.  So much for rumors!  Our company was later sent to LZ Catapult area for another search and destroy operation.  I remember we got in a daylong nasty firefight there.  I was WIA on March 6, 1969 and med-evaced to 3^rd Med at Quang Tri.

I stayed overnight and was med-evaced to Da Nang, then to Guam Naval Hospital.  From Guam, I was med-evaced to Millington Naval Hospital, just a little north of Memphis, Tennessee.  I was medically discharged June, 1970.  My first contact with anyone that was on Neville, or Russell, was last month (March, 2001) after my wife got a new computer.  I found the LZ Russell Web Site and contacted Skip Poindexter.  He as done such a find job with the web site and should be commended.

Sometime in the future, I would like to learn more about the ground attack on Neville, that I didn't see, or know about.