by Jim Sheppard » Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:47 am
There were 4 men KIA from Company D, 1/50th. There were 30 men wounded from Company D as well. One man from HHC, 1/50th (Flame platoon), the forward observer from the 7/13th Artillery and the entire crew of the downed med-evac helicopter were also wounded...for a total of 36 wounded. There may have been more...but these listed I can document.
The enemy unit was reported by intelligence to have been the 8th Battalion, of the 22nd NVA Regiment...approximately 300+/- men. The unit that the 1/50th was assigned to was the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. Their Daily Staff Journal entrees for the action were fraught with inacuracies...not the least of which was a report that there was no ground attack! (Later corrected). The summary on the final page reported only 59 enemy soldier KIA on that date for the entire US Brigade! Further perpetuation of this drastic under reporting of the enemy casualties was reflected in the Operational Report, Lessons Learned, same 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division dated 20 September, 1968...which stated that 36 enemy were killed and 12 weapons captured.
This historian has documented statements from no less than 6 men who related that they counted at least 100 enemy bodies on the battlefield at first light of March 9th.
All this information is available in our Association Archives of official documents. I have a loose leaf notebook full of documents and photos of the battle...as most of you know. It is on display and available for perusal at out reunions.