KEN'S vIET nAM pHOTOS AND sTORIES
I took this photo just a couple of hours before our Battle for Plei Ya Bo (Three Trees)
I took this photo just after our Battle for Plei Ya Bo (Three Trees)
Stanley Wesley Dix was Killed in Action in this famous Battle for Plei Ya Bo (Three Trees). I took this photo at the Viet Nam Wall.
THE BATTLE OF PLEI YA BO (Three Trees)
July 23, 1967
We were all dug in for the night. I mean we had our foxholes dug, with logs on top. Just all of a sudden there was a sudden rattle of shots off in the direction where "C" Company was dug in. Heads whipped around, weapons were snatched up, and our men started heading for their foxholes. The initial rattle of fire was increasing, raging like a lethal windstorm in the distance. I clutched my M16 in my left hand ready for action. Shots began snapping over our heads from the direction. I don't know if you have ever experienced a bullet snapping over your head or not but the bullet makes a load crack 1st and you then hear the thud of the gun that fired the shot. Then all of a sudden our Company Commander, Captain Buie, voice came on our radios and told us leave our Rucksacks and be ready to move Eight-Threes location.
This meant that we were that we were to be ready to move to "C" Companys location at the far end of the five or six-hundred-yard meadow. Just then an enemy rocket hit the trunk of a eucalyptus tree in the perimeter, raking the place with splinters and bark. We moved out through the yellow grass of the meadow under an overcast sky. The hundred and forty men of my company were in a diamond formation.
