Bleeding from multiple shrapnel wounds from a grenade blast that knocked the weapon out of his hands and the helmet off his head, Pfc. Guy Leonard zigzagged blindly along a trench dug into a red dirt hilltop outside Khe Sanh in South Vietnam.
As he ran and wiped blood from his eyes, Leonard suddenly encountered a North Vietnamese soldier, or NVA. From beneath his flak jacket, Leonard pulled an aluminum mess kit knife and fought his way past one enemy soldier, then another.
It was Feb. 8, 1968, and 64 Marines from the 1st Battalion 9th Marines from the 1st Battalion 9th Marines were hunkered down on a small outpost atop a hill about half the size of a football field, trying to fight off hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers who launched a full-out attack in the hours before dawn.
For the rest of Guy’s story, click on the pdf below.