From Frank Dendish
| Unknown, probably at Hotel Battery |
From Robert Nicholson
| At Hotel Battery. |
From Ray Rankin
| Steve Lewis under a hootch at Hotel Battery. We moved from Cobb Bridge to Hotel Battery in early August 1969. On August 12th the road sweep that ran out past the Catholic Ville was hit. 1st platoon went out to help. We got out there and started searching for the gooks. After a bit we were on line sweeping back toward Hotel Battery. Just as we crossed the road that ran to Hill 22 we found some. Cecil Lambert was killed right off and Doc David Dean who went to his aid in spite of Lambert lying in the open only 20-30 feet from the gooks was shot also. David Dinehart got shot in the arm. There was a small hill just on the other side of the road. It was very steep right there and the gooks had dug a couple of pits in the brush there. There was some high heavy brush between where I was and the gooks. Sgt Tom Ferguson crawled over to see what was going on where we were and I suggested that Steve Lewis's squad (he was the squad leader) move around and get on the hill. Tom thought that was a good idea so we did. There was a half built concrete block building there. Most of the squad jumped in it but Lewis and myself crawled over to the edge. There was a small pile of bricks on the edge overlooking the area where the fighting was taking place. So we crawled over to take a peek. I looked and saw nothing but heard a bullet hit Steve. I jerked around to see him sit up and throw his flackjacket off, the bottom left inside was a big splash of blood. He sat there for a second, looking at me. I did't know what to think, so I cleverly asked him, "You okay?" He calmly replied, "Yeah, it was just in the chest." We looked at each other for a second and he keeled over. I got him and started dragging him back to the block building and Robert Martinez came out and helped me. I did what I could for him, which wasn't much. After a bit a truck came and got the wounded and hauled them to Battalion Aid at Dai La, about two miles away. Steve recovered and now lives in Oklahoma. In August 2004 I took a trip on my bike and visited Robert Martinez in Los Osos, CA. We were talking about that day and he told me that when the firing started Clarence Stevens dropped to his knees, right out in the open, and got out his bible and started reading. He went into some kind of catatonic state. They took him away with Steve and when they picked him up he was frozen in that kneeling - reading position. |