Ken Mize, 1st platoon: 
Ken Mize with his M79
I volunteered for the draft in September of ’65. I had graduated from high school the previous Spring. My Dad was originally a tenant farmer but was working general maintenance at the college there in Conway (Arkansas). I have two older brothers and three sisters.
After basic I had a 30 day leave, and orders to report to Oakland. My parents took it pretty well, they knew what was going on in the world but it didn’t really hit them that I was going over there until I left for Oakland.
I felt that I was doing my duty for my country. The reason I volunteered for the draft was to get in and get the military behind me or if I liked it, stay in.
I was in Oakland three days, right at the end of February. I arrived in-country on March 4th. I went to a replacement deport but I was only there one or two days. When we got to the replacement depot they had a deal where you could sign up on the Buddy plan, go to the same unit, and he came to me and asked if I wanted to sign up on the Buddy Plan. I said "sure, if you want to." His name was Danny Walden. We got pretty close. Talked about back home. We weren't over there very long when he told me he didn’t think he was going to make it through his year. I told him, "Well Danny you need to be thinking positive." He told me that he had tried that and it was just clear to him he wasn't going to make it.
When we first arrived at BearCat they told us that we would be there a week or two to get acclimated to the weather. Charlie Company was in the field when I arrived. I was placed in 1st platoon.
The Company had intended to stay in base camp for a rest but another unit was pinned down... our unit had to go and give them some relief. They trucked us to a little dirt airstrip where helicopters were lined up. We got on those… my platoon were the first ones in [to the LZ]. There was smoke and fire. Other soldiers just told me to watch them, do what they did. The platoon laid down a base of fire from the choppers.
There weren’t any enemy soldiers there once we secured the LZ and looked around. It was Sergeant George Manning was the one who took me under his wing. I carried an M79 grenade launcher. I also carried a .45. I don’t remember what exactly happened to the other unit.
We ended up back at base camp.
[The worst thing for me that first month was…] I remember the snipers. A lot of sniping.
I remember Jimmy Robinson another guy and I were on a Listening Post, we were quite away in front of the lines. I had my.45 and the M79. I was awake while the other two guys were catching a nap. I heard this noise. The distinctive sound of someone stepping on a branch. I just knew that there was someone stepping on something. Then it happened again. I reached over real easy and woke him [Robinson] up and told him I heard something. When he came up, he came up firing.
I also remember that he use to read all the time. Back in base camp he was always reading. Always had a book in his hand.
ABILENE
I had my camera with me on that operation. This one place, out in a fairly open field, we were getting resupplied. Our squad was in the middle of the field. We had security around us. There was some sniper fire. The ground was being kicked up around us. I hit the ground so fast that one of the other guys said later, "I thought Mize was hit he hit the ground before the rest of us." It didn't dawn on me until later what was actually happening, then I started shaking.
I never saw those three VC on April 10, we were on the other side of the action. I didn't do any firing, but there was a lot of firing.
After starting out on April 11 we started drawing fire, snipers. That happened several times. The jungle was so thick, and little trails and just small clearings. You really couldn't see the rest of the Company or what was going on. At least I couldn't. I hope some of the rest of them knew more about what was going on than I did.
I remember seeing George Manning after he had been shot. In the elbow or arm. The Jungle was so thick I couldn’t use the M79 so I was just using my .45. I remember Sgt. Bradley saying, "I just shot one right between the eyes." All I was doing with the .45 was, any kind of movement in front of us, I was laying down fire in that direction.
I remember establishing a perimeter was a problem. Later on Sgt. Sutterfield was trying to establish the line. Motion and holler, "spread it out," "move there."
When things were getting pretty hot, to establish the line, there wasn’t any good cover. There were a few larger trees, but they were already taken. Sgt. Sutterfield got shot in the wrist. He was to my left. He was 20 feet to my left. A black guy, Ivory, was shot through both ankles.
One time I thought I was hit. I was lying straight with my legs together. There was a numb feeling on both legs. I just knew I had been hit by a piece of shrapnel. I felt back there and it was a big clot of dirt. It had rapped me in behind the knees so hard it made my legs go numb.
So much was going on, the trees were naked from the shelling, I was wondering how all this could be happening, guys falling around me, and I hadn’t been hit yet. After I did get hit, I don’t know if this sounds strange, but it was almost like a relief. "OK, I’ve got mine now."
When I got hit, a sting and a thud and a burn. It was a hole in and a hole out. It was like a cease, through the meaty part of my shoulder. When I made it to the field hospital the next day they cut it open – they said it was infected – I’m here to tell you that hurt worst than getting shot. They used a bristle brush to actually clean the wound.
When I was shot, at first, I just stayed where I was. I knew I could still fight.
That night, I drug Leo Inklelaar back into the perimeter. My Bronze Star citation got it wrong. It said I was hit while dragging him back. I had already been hit when I went out to get Leo. I went to put on a tourniquet I saw that there was one already on his arm. I loosened that for a while and then put it back on. He was still conscious but in shock. Inklelaar had been bringing Sgt. Bradley in – Bradley had been shot – when Inklelaar got hit. Lnklelaar had been hit three times. In the neck, the face and his arm. We called him "Point Man." He was always pulling point.
His jaw and neck were so swollen he couldn’t say “Mize,” he could only say "My."
I could hear a lot going on. Seems it was about a 100 feet to my right. I defended my perimeter. As far as actually seen the enemy face to face, I didn’t. I saw movement, leaves moving, concussions of the shells blasting the leaves. That’s what I shot at. One time I could tell that the bullets were coming into the ground from the trees. I treated it like a pool shot, going from where I was at, reversing it and seeing where the leaves and twigs were moving up to the treetops. I fired in that direction. I didn’t see any bodies fall but I think I did some good there. By that time I had acquired a M16. Matter of fact I ended up with two rifles.
Later that evening, it was dark, I could see muzzle flashes. It was a better target for me. Behind me and to the right, after everything had died down -- we didn’t have a medic -- the medics had been wounded or killed -- me and another guy, Dan Atkinson, were crawling around and giving guys first aid that we could. Dan was a trooper, handled himself so well that guys thought we were medics. They were calling us "doc." I didn’t tell them any different.
A guy was telling me that his back was killing him. He only had a small wound in his arm, but he kept saying that his back was killing him. I told him to sit up, maybe that would help. He said he couldn’t move. I put my arm underneath him to help him up, I could feel the big hole in his back, the exit wound in his back. I told him that he probably didn’t need to sit up, but he said he had to sit up. So I propped him against a tree.
The next morning I saw Danny Waldon. Waldon had little feet, I saw his little feet sticking out from under the poncho.
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