Page 48 - Stand Down Vietnam

I squatted down and motioned for my squad to get down.
They motioned for the rest of the Company to get down.
So, I peeked over there and saw them sitting around; I
reached down and took a grenade off my pistol belt and
tossed it over there into them. It blowed their a**es
all up. They weren’t laughing no more after I did
that.

When we got back to the company, my commander told me,
“Sergeant Campbell, were never last a man, so I’m
putting you in for three Bronze Stars.”

I respected all the people above me in rank. They knew
the type person I was and they respected me. Whatever I
told them to do, they did. I didn’t have no problem
with them.

I was in charge of the 1st Squad, 1st Platoon; a lot of
the guys in Vietnam were careless.

We always had one doctor (medic) that would march right
along with us through the jungle. There was this one
time when one of my guys got injured. He was walking
right behind me; we were coming upon this Viet Cong
camp; I stayed on him about the way he walked; he liked
to drag his feet. That day he was foolish, walking
along he stepped on a tripwire.

A booby trap went off and hit him in the butt. I called
for the medic to come over and take a look; he called
in a medivac chopper. I asked my wounded soldier why he
didn’t step where I stepped; he was just foolish.

His name is now on that wall; he died from a mortar
attack later on during his assignment. He got the
wrong ticket home.