| Full Name | Steve "Wally" Waldner | Previous Duty Station | Quang Tri |
| Service Branch | USMC | Location In Area | Quang Tri |
| Unit | 3/12-Hq | Date Arrived In Area | 3-1 day visits |
| Date Entered | 07/02/67 | Main Job In Area | Disbursing |
| Date Discharged | 07/01/71 | Rank When There | Cpl |
| Highest Rank | SSgt | Date Left Proximity | 26/08/69 |
| MOS | 0141 | Next Duty Station | HQMC, Wash DC |
| Boot Camp/OCS Location | San Diego | Medals Received | CAR, NAV w/Combat V |
Note:
Wally is currently living in Friendswood, TX and working as the Director of a senior assistance center.
(Note: Wally was the PCS orders and the Casualty Clerk in the S-1 at Hq Btry 3/12 from 4 Jan. 68 to 26 Aug 69)
I have tried for the last two years, since I found the LZ Russell website, to chronicle my experiences regarding 25 February 1969 as it pertained to LZ Neville and LZ Russell. Two reasons have given me trouble in doing this. First and foremost I was not at either LZ. I was involved in the aftermath of both battles. Secondly, my story pails in comparison to those who were there and fought. Given that, the events below are the events of 10 days in my life that I remember as clear as crystal in a fog.
I arrived in county in January 1968 and received my baptism under fire with Tet of ’68. I was the battalion PCS clerk and the Casualty Clerk assigned to Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion 12th Marines. My experience with LZ Russell began in late November 1968 when I accompanied the disbursing officer to all of the forward positions. We had to have each of the Marines in the battalion sign a disbursing manifest requesting how much MPC’s (Military Payment Certificate) they wanted to draw on payday and how much money they wanted to send home or leave on the books for R&R.
At that time Cpl. Gerald PRZYBYLINSKI was my driver and we both discussed extending our tours in Vietnam due to the length of time we still had to do in the suck. Ski was married and had a couple kids and said his wife could use the extra combat pay. We both took out leave during the month of December. When we returned SKI was reassigned back to Hotel Battery and LZ Russell.
Each month the disbursing officer and myself would start with our special payday assignment at Vandy, then go to Cates, Neville, Russell and Winchester as well as all stops in between. This process would take two days by helicopter and we usually stayed the night at Vandy before returning to Quang Tri Combat Base (QTCB). On the first of each month we would repeat the process in order to actually pay the Marines the MCP they requested. If you didn’t smoke or gamble a Marine could live off of less than $20 per month due to the fact there was nothing to spend it on.
On Thursday 21 February 1969 we began this assignment. When we were at 3rdMarDiv Headquarters, at QTCB, preparing to disembark, we were warned that some serious shit was going down in the northwest portion of the High I Corps. HQ wanted us to complete our assignment in one day if we could, but the disbursing office and myself liked going to the forward positions in order to get out of QTCB.
It took us until Saturday 23 February 1969 to locate all the Marines of 3rd Battalion. At the time we had over 700 Marines in 3/12. There was India Battery, Hotel Battery, Golf Battery, Whiskey Battery, Tango Battery and Papa Battery and HQ Battery making up the 3rd Battalion. These batteries were spread all over the High I Corps of Quang Tri Province. The most I can remember about the assignment was that the helicopter ride was cold and it was very foggy and overcast when we were up in the mountains. We did not get to see any action and we were greeted at each LZ with the same comment: “Did you bring my flight date with you?” To say that everybody wanted to get off the hill was an under statement. The disbursing officer and myself were looking forward to returning on 1 March to pay everybody and share with them any news from the rear with the gear and the beer.
Sunday 25 February 69 was like many other Sundays spent in the Nam. On this particular Sunday I pulled tower watch at QTCB. I was assigned the tower in front of the Seabee unit with two other corporals and from the beginning you could tell this was going to be a strange night. First of all, the word came down from division we would be on a red alert for the entire night. This meant 3 up and none down on guard duty. Then as soon as we got on guard duty the fog came rolling in. This was the thickest fog I have ever seen. You couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face more or less the perimeters wire.
Because of the thick fog we kept seeing things that were not there. This went on until around 0130. The phone rang and the com guard said that the officer of the day wanted everybody on 100% alert. This was strange since we were already on 100% alert. The com guard then told us that LZ Neville was under attack and by the sounds of it they were in the process of being over run. A little while later the phone rang again and the com guard said the LZ Russell was now under attack. He then patched the radio transmission into all the guard posts and we all listened to the battle as it was being described by Cpl Larry LISS. LISS was frantic and you could hear the explosions of frags and small arms fire going off in the background. This went on for 15 or 20 minutes and then the transmission went dead. The NVA had cut the comm. wire. I later learned that Cpl LISS went outside of the command bunker to find and repair the cut in his wire and an NVA sapper tossed a satchel charge at him. The blast traumatically blew off both of Cpl LISS’ legs.
By now it was almost 0300 and everybody on guard duty was scared that we were next to get attacked at QTCB. The OD woke up the entire camp and had the reaction platoon reinforce the lines. They stayed there the rest of the night. The attack never came.
At 0700 a vehicle pulled up in front of my tower and told me I was to report to the battalion XO’s office at once. The XO was Major R.E. “Bob” GIBSON. I went straight to his office to find him, the Adjutant, CWO DURBINO, and the S-1 officer, 2nd Lt. DUNN waiting for me. Lt. DUNN was a mustang. I was given orders to report to Charlie Med and to start receiving the WIA’s and the KIA’s.
The fog did not lift until about 0820 and the first Hueys started arriving around 0845 with wounded and dead from both Neville and Russell. For the next two and half hours I was involved with triage at Charlie Med. I can’t remember how many Marines came through triage but there were many. As soon as we cleared the triage area of wounded Marines another Huey would arrive with more Marines. They all made it out of triage alive and into the operating room. This was the most horrible thing I have ever witnessed in my life. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worst I went outside for a smoke and saw all the bodies being lined up out side of Graves Registration. There were three rows dead Marines.
There were close to 30 Marines from E-2/4 and H-3/12 and W-3/12. I went over and saw friends of mine who were killed just a few hours before. There was a Colonel who was walking among the dead Marines taking pictures of them as they lay there with all their mortal wounds. A Lance Corporal went up and punched out the Colonel. Knock him to the ground and then destroyed his camera. The Colonel got up and went to his jeep and left; the Lance Corporal the same. I never did find out where the Lance Corporal came from, but he was my hero for that one brief moment.
I then saw Cpl PRZYBYLINSKI among the KIA’s. I couldn’t believe it. I just sat there for the longest time staring at SKI and thinking why him?
I then started the arduous tasks of finding out who was KIA and who was WIA. Investigating the circumstances surrounding their death or wounds, inventorying their gear and preparing the condolence letters for their families. Maj. GIBSON called me into his office and informed me that the battalion CO, I believe it was Col. E.D. FOXWORTH, would be signing the condolence letters. I informed the XO that the immediate CO, the battery CO, was the only one authorized to sign the condolence letters. He said the battalion CO would be signing and to prepare the letter. I went and got the Marine Corps Manuel and showed him who was authorized to sign. He said the battalion CO would sign and that was the end of the discussion. I ripped the order out of the Manuel and threw it away. The major looked surprised and I told him if the order did not pertain to us I was not going to have it cluttering up my files. I then left his office without being excused.
It took until Wednesday 27 February 69 to get the condolence letters signed and delivered to division. I gave the letters to a Sgt. SMITH, who was from Texas City, Texas (He was always saying “The city so nice they had to name it twice”.) He handed them right back to me and said that I had the wrong signature on them and to go and correct them. . I told him the story about Maj. GIBSON and before I knew it I was standing before Gen. R.G.DAVIS telling him the story. Gen. DAVIS told me to go and do the condolence letters correctly and to have them back to him in one day’s time. I was then excused. On the jeep ride back to the battalion area my driver and I saw Maj. GIBSON flying down the road to Division. He had a date with Gen. DAVIS.
The Major returned and jumped my case about the letters. By now my attitude towards the major was very bad to say the least. He said we would not miss the general’s deadline and to do the letters at once. I told him all of this could have been avoided if we just followed procedures. I was not scoring points with the major.
It was now Wednesday afternoon and I had been up since Sunday without sleep. There was just too much to do. And now my clerks and myself had to redo the condolence letters. At about 4 in the morning Maj. GIBSON came into the S-1 to find out the status of the letters. No one came to attention when he entered the office. I told him we were on the last letter and he said he wanted it at once. I picked up my royal typewriter and threw it at the Major. And screamed at him that he could have it right now. He ran out of the office. For this I got office hours and filled 500 sandbags.
It wasn’t until Saturday that we finished inventorying all the gear of the KIS’s and the WIA’s. I remember one of the Marines had written on his wallet the Marine Corps Hymn. It went: ”Hymn, Hymn, fuck him.” Needless to say we did not send that home to his mother.
It was total bedlam trying to find and keep track of all the Marines who were wounded. They were scattered from Charles Med in Quang Tri to Bravo Med in Phi Bai to the Hospital in Da Nang to the USS Sanctuary off the coast.
The last Marine to die in country was Cpl. Larry LISS. He died on 7 March 69 from complications from both of his legs being traumatically blown off. The doctor said that his system was used to making and pumping blood to both of his legs and when they were traumatically his system continued to make blood for his legs and this caused him to have a heart attack.
We did find that L/Cpl SIKORSKI, who was killed on LZ Russell, was the son of a Marine General. His dad was in country when he was killed. When L/Cpl SIKORSKI checked into the S-1 we told him with a name like that he should have been in the air wing. I only wish he would have gone to the wing.
I rotated from Viet Nam on 26 August 1969, which happened to be my 21st birthday. My next duty station was Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. I was assigned to Readiness Central in G-3 and General DAVIS was the CG of G-3. I was award the Navy Commendation Metal with the combat “V” and General DAVIS read the citation and pinned the metal on me. He took me aside and told me that he remembered the story about the condolence letters. He also said he was still very upset regarding both LZ Neville and Russell.
These are the details to the best of my memory. This being written 34 years after the fact. I think of the Marines who were killed and wounded every day of my life. Sometimes the thoughts are humorist and remind me of a camadarune and other times they are it is with deep pain and sorrow, but no matter how I remember I am always thankful for what they gave me and I always cherish my freedom and liberties knowing that their spirits are behind them. May God bless every one of them.
Semper Fidelis!