Vietnam War Timeline

77
8 March 1970
2/35th
Submitted by: Jim

Lt. Penman. During my 1st mission following the "cattle-rustler" incident we were inserted into an LZ just off of F.B. Challenger. We were operating as a company unit with all three platoons together. We humped into rather thick triple canopy jungle and was operating on a wide ridge. Our platoon was probably the last platoon in line of march when a halt was called. We had only waited for a minute or so when shots rang out at the front of the formation. Everyone hit the ground and began to put fire out in various directions. The firing became pretty heavy in a short period of time and as was often the case it was difficult to determine how much of it was incoming and how much of it was outgoing.

This was my second mission and my second firefight. At this point I came to the opinion that firefights must be a part of every mission. Laying there flat on the ground I was amazed at how calmly Jack Adami went about getting everyone into defensive positions. He was walking around completely upright in the middle of all this and tapping guys on the shoulder to point them to where he wanted them. At some point during all of this our people threw out tear gas grenades and we all had to don our gas masks for a short period. This is the one and only time in Vietnam where I had to use my gas mask. Many of the guys though no longer had a gas mask because they had long ago pitched them away to save on weight. I'm sure that the tear gas was a short term problem for them.

As I lay there taking it all in there shortly came that natural lull in the firing that I later found always occurs. I called out to see if anyone was hurt and got a response sort of out to one side of us. I rushed to where I'd been called to find that a Lt. From another platoon was down. Getting there at about the same time was the C.O. medic. I'm not sure at this time just what his name might have been (but it may have been McDaniels). Also arriving about the same time was the platoon medic for this platoon. Today I can't remember who this was. The C.O. Medic turned Lt. Penman onto his back and we found an entrance wound pretty well in the middle of his chest. At this date I don't believe that there was a corresponding exit wound. Lt. Penman was not moving nor showed any signs of consciousness. The C.O. Medic got out a bandage and placed the plastic wrapper directly on the wound and then placed the bandage over this. This was done on the presumption that this was a sucking chest wound. This was not apparent though because he wasn't breathing. The other medic and I were asked to begin CPR.

I'm not certain which part I began with but we both took turns before it was over with the resuscitation and the cardiopulmonary. As the process went along we soon noticed that the Lt. Was quickly swelling about the neck and later down the torso. The more we resuscitated the more he was swelling. The presumption then and now was that the bullet had punctured the lungs and as we blew air in it was leaking out of the lungs and swelling the tissues that surrounded. The Lt. wasn't responding and the more that we blew the more that he swelled until finally his throat swelled shut and we were no longer getting air to his lungs. The C.O. Medic being the experienced senior medic of the three of us, decided that we needed to perform a Crycothyroidotomy. This is the form of tracheotomy that we were trained for in our schooling. He got out a razor blade and located the Cryroid?. This is the bony protrusion in your throat. (Part of your adam's apple.) After you locate this you feel for the depression between the two ridges. Here you cut until you reach the airway. He performed this cut while I located a tube to insert. In this case we used the bottom of my ballpoint pen. After he opened I inserted the bottom of the pen and the cut just naturally closed back over to help hold the pen. We then placed tape to help hold it in place. The Lt. was still not breathing so the C.O. medic began blowing into the pen bottom in an attempt to get more air to the Lt.'s lungs. This seemed to be moderately successful and we took turns with this for a short period of time. But the Lt. never gave any sign of life during all this and had become extremely swollen from the air seepage.

About this time someone from my platoon came for me because we were getting ready to make a sweep to help clear the area. I left the other two medics with the Lt. but it was apparent that he was already dead. Our platoon went off and swept the area but found nothing of any importance. I later heard the medivac chopper come in when they took the Lt. away but cannot remember if they found a clearing or if they used an extractor. The Lt. I found out many years later was John Richard Penman from Columbus, GA. He was married. From what I understand of the incident, a Kit Carson Scout with the platoon (probably named Thu) stopped the advance and told a squad leader that he had seen Dinks to the front. The squad leader told the Lt. but the Lt. wouldn't believe him without seeing for himself. So he stood up to see and was shot in the chest. To my knowledge after the firefight, teargas, artillery, and a sweep of the area no Dink bodies or wounded were found. We soon after this were lifted off to F.B. Challenger.