Vietnam 2nd battalion
Richard (Rick) Merrick
B Company 1967
I joined B Co. Mar. 67. My code name was Maverick. We had several engagements but our big one came in Aug. 67 during operation Malheur I. We ran right into an enemy base camp when all hell broke lose, the enemy had set up an ambush. The point man saw a dead tree laying across the trail. Suddenly the enemy opened fire from forward and right flank positions and the point man was hit and so was the platoon leader LT Chico Beltran. Plt Sgt Merrick was called forward and he proceeded to take charge. I sent the second and third squads to the right flank and led the rest of the platoon forward. Together, we overran the enemy position. The following day A Company captured a wounded VC and also found fresh graves. The prisoner said approximately twenty of his comrades had been killed or wounded.
