2nd Platoon, C Company, 4th/47th Battalion, 2nd Brigade

Here’s my buddy Frank – what a great photo taken aboard our troop ship,
the “USS General John Pope” enroute to South Vietnam – January 1967.
Little did Frank know this day that barely 7 months later he would lie
seriously wounded in a rice paddy with four of his fellow squad members
shot dead just a few feet from his position. The rest of us in the 2nd Platoon
were unable to crawl across the dry rice paddy to help him and our other
buddy, Henry Hubbard, who saved Frank’s life that day. We were pinned
down on July 11, 1967 by a bunkered Viet Cong force all day and through
the night. At day break, the next morning I’ll never forget seeing Hubbard
practically carrying Frank towards our position where we were holed up in
a stream bed over night at the edge of that rice paddy.
I remember how excited we were that they survived the night because the
Viet Cong had approached our dead buddies – Phil Ferro, Harold King, But
Eakins, And Sgt George Smith – during the night and took their weapons, ammunition and all valuables. Hubbard & Schwan laid behind a small rice paddy dike with the pins pulled on their hand grenades in case they were
discovered. Quite frankly, it’s truly amazing that they survived, especially with Frank being so seriously wounded.
Bill Reynolds – January 2, 2009



possessions – his Puple Heart and his
drawings. I’m pretty sure the bottom
drawing is a salute to Henry Hubbard
who helped him surive our July 11th
battle and who helped him out of
that stinkin’ rice paddy.



