Johnny A grew up as a golden boy high school athlete and class president of well to do parents in the mid west. WW II broke out and in 1943 Johnny turned 18 and against his parents wishes "threw it all away" and enlisted in the marines to serve his country. His touch continued as he was quickly found to have true leadership talent and ended up a squad leader on Okinawa. After the war he demobilized and went to college to prepare for law school to take over his dad's practice. He was restless however, and Betty Lou helped quench that fire in him. After Betty informed him she was with child his dad told him the honorable thing to do was marry her and stop living a wild life. Johnny didn't want to give up his wild life so spit for the east coast. After bouncing around for 6 months he realized he knew how to soldier and went to France and joined the Legion armed with his High School French. The Legion also noted his skill and he advanced rapidly to once again become a squad leader. His brash cockyness did rub his fellow NCOs a bit, particularly the kraut Dietz ( swear I rolled him up too!) and the Lt Carville but the Company commander fancied himself a fluent english speaker and americanophile so liked this marine who had seen action in WW II while he himself had been in North Africa.
West of Hanoi in the Red River Delta 1951
Capt Doucet informed Johnny in English that a mentor of his had located to Annam and he wanted to take him to see the temple up river. He wanted Johnny's squad to accompany them. The boat would only hold a dozen people so he should pick 10 and meet him at the dock tomorrow at 7 am. Now Johnny didn't like the Captain but he had treated Johnny well and the Captain was brilliant in a fight. None better he had every seen; even in the Corps. Besides, the Captain was the Captain...
Patrol scenario using Grunt Forward.
Sgt Johnny A Gr II Leader
1st Squad 10 men including 1 BAR 8/10
ASL Cpl Hughes Gr II Leader
Capt Doucet Gr III leader with Brilliant characteristic
1 patrol boat with LMG up front.
The VC use tunnels to move to the opposite side of the village leaving the LMG in the temple. One of Hugh's men goes down with a serious wound. Johnny patches him up and takes him back to the boat.
The boat moves up and eliminates the LMG.
As Johnny picks up the rear guard to move they are attacked by the VC squad. Disciplined firepower carries the firefight and after 2 KIAs charlie breaks off contact.
Short fun firefight! Easy victory for Johnny A. One serious wound vrs 4 KIA for the VC. ( VM) Post battle Johnny gets to talking with the priest who also speaks english and they strike up a friendship. Also, Cpl Hugh's fireteam takes a liking to him with a +1.
More to come for sure!
Enjoy
Joe
.
Excellent fight Joe, thanks for posting, and I'm looking forward to your modern Africa write-up as well. A couple issues:
ReplyDelete1) Johnny A is pretty cool, but nowhere near as cool as that debonair Staff Sergeant of Marines in your Iraq campaign. You know, the one recently decorated for valor ;)
2) I was gonna gripe about the mistreatment, i.e., "...gentleman and Jack...,' but, as they say, any publicity is good publicity ;)
I hope all is well, and that temple is awesome, I need to head over to PetSmart!
V/R,
Jack
Jack,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you as always!
1. Agreed- not even close but you have to try.
2. Actually thought you would take it as a complement otherwise I would hear, "don't call me that. I work for a living!"
Joe
I enjooyed reading this
ReplyDelete