There had been some talk about our staying in this particular camp, taking over from the Okinawa team.

This would have freed up a more experienced team to open one of the border camps. Every single member of our team protested the idea. Frankly, we were getting bored to death. We didn't come to Vietnam to sit out the war in a safe area. Somehow our team leader, Captain Lawrence Hackley, managed to convince the powers-that-be that we should continue our original mission which was to go to a place in the Third Corps Tactical Zone and open up a new camp. That camp was to be called Loc Ninh.

The town of Loc Ninh is located in Binh Long Province, some 90 miles to the northwest of Saigon. It

is nine miles from Cambodia where it juts into Vietnam in what later came to be called the Parrot's Beak region. To the south and east is the amorphous region known as War Zone C, a Viet Minh stronghold that

now contained the largest grouping of main force Viet Cong in the area.

Our six-month tour was drawing to a close. The replacement team, headed by Captain Robert K. Mosier,

arrived from Fort Bragg for a two-week transition.

Mosier wanted to observe the village sick call program. Largely on the spur of the moment, he, Captain Hackley, and our team sergeant, MSG Jack Goodman, hopped into a jeep and headed out for the village where Leo Violette was conducting that day.s effort. The LLDB escorts took their own jeep, and since they knew the area, were in the lead. The little convoy passed through a small village on the way to the larger village where the sick call was being held.

The Viet Cong ambush team in the buildings lining the road must have been amazed at this stroke of luck . they had been expecting to ambush Leo and his medical team on their return from sick call, but now had in their sights a much more lucrative target.

The first round came through the rear window of the jeep in which the Americans were riding, striking Sergeant Goodman in the back of the head. His death was instantaneous. Captain Hackley, driving, was hit three times in the chest and tumbled out of the jeep on his side, mortally wounded. Captain Mosier, in the right front, was hit several times in the hip and leg and tumbled out the jeep, dragging himself to refuge in a ditch where, our later investigation determined, he managed to return fire before being killed by a grenade. A grenade thrown into their vehicle had already wiped out the Vietnamese team. The VC quickly stripped the bodies of weapons and equipment, and faded into the surrounding trees. The ambush had happened so close to camp the defenders could clearly hear the gunfire and explosions, and a reaction force was on site within minutes.