| Full Name | Andrew L. King | Previous Duty Station | See Below |
| Service Branch | USMC | Location In Area | LZ Russell / LZ Neville |
| Unit | 3/12-W, 4.2 Mortars | Date Arrived In Area | Oct. 1968 |
| Date Entered | 12/04/67 | Main Job In Area | FDC bunker radio operator for 4.2Mortar Btry |
| Date Discharged | 07/17/70 | Rank When There | E-4 |
| Highest Rank | Corporal | Date Left Proximity | 1969 |
| MOS | 2531 | Next Duty Station | |
| Boot Camp Location |
Parris Island, Platoon 2082, Feb. 68' grad.
|
Medals Received | Navy Achievement Medal w/V, Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Vietnamese Service, Vietnamese Campaign, and the Firewatch Ribbon. |
Note:
Andrew lives in Massapequa, NY and works as a Management Representative/Counselor. He listed his "Previous Duty Station" as follows: "LZ Neville, LZ Stud, LZ Cates, LZ Winchester, Hill 512 (Quantico), LZSierra, Cam Lo ville, Rockpile, Mai loc, Cua Viet , Up and down Rt.9 and of course Quang tri, and Dong ha. those are all I remember." - Busy guy!
The majority of my tour of duty was spent on either LZ Russell or LZ Neville. As you may know, Mortar Btry followed Golf or Fox 2/4 grunts almost anywhere. A friend, Doc Davis who was killed, was originally from our battery, Whiskey 3/12. I/we were on Russell all through i think Nov, Dec of 68 and all through the alleged tet of '69 on Russell in which nothing big happened. I personally know that my wire to our landlines were being cut every night and my wireman and I had to keep replacing freshly cut wire.
As you may remember, intelligence said there was a high troop concentration in the area and we all sensed it at some point, but not much happened the end of Jan. and the first wk, second wk of Feb.69. I've been trying to find out the exact date that we (Mortar Btry 3/12) were pulled off the hill and sent back to Quang tri.
I've always felt that the gooks attacked because we were taken off the hill. We were sent right back up there after it was overrun. I was given two promotions in 30days and spent the rest of my tour mostly on either Russell or Neville breaking in FNG's on the radio.
'Really wanted to know if anybody knew my good friend named Kenny Gilliam, also killed that night. He's not listed as being in any outfit, he was one of my two asst. honchos in radio school in San Diego. I feel he may have tried to contact me on the radio at some point. He went by initials Kilo Golf and mine was Alpha Lima Kilo. Just wanted to know what battery he was with. I've got a bunch of pictures of us(mortar btry) on both LZ's just don't remember the dates. In short, we were there for tet but nothing happened after a few wks we were ordered back to the rear (Quang tri) and I was told I'd better take R&R, or not get it. 'Got to Hong Kong and when I got back both hills were overrun and I got a bunch of scared new radio operators to go back to Russell with. I've always felt guilty. We weren't there when it did happen, but we were there when it should have happened (end of Jan 69). Missed no more than ten days out of at least 6-8 mos!