Vietnam War, 1970: CBS camera rolls as platoon comes under fire

it's dawn and alpha 2 1 9 is commuting to war 21 gi's bound for a jungle clearing a mile from the cambodian border american soldiers hiking their way through the sweaty jungles of south vietnam searching for an elusive enemy the temperature is almost 100 degrees and the jungle stifles even the tiniest breeze the going is slow there could be a north vietnamese regiment hiding a few yards away and no one would see it nobody talks so you start thinking specialist poor dwayne bluer is thinking he's going to meet his fiancee in honolulu in two weeks and he will show her the silver star the general pinned on him yesterday devaye is the lone medic in the platoon he's scared scared from the moment he gets out of the chopper to the moment it picks him up scared that someday he's going to get killed picking up a wounded buddy jorgensen just became a sergeant but he doesn't like it he'd rather be up walking point where the action is he's already got three purple hearts so everybody calls him hero then there's lieutenant hugely everybody calls him blue that's his radio call blue didn't want to come to vietnam and he'd much rather be a businessman than a soldier but right now he's in charge of the lives of 21 men somewhere in this jungle there's several hundred north vietnamese soldiers who could wipe out this little american unit to the last man in an unguarded moment today though it's quiet a few bunkers uncovered then a quick lunch and back down the trail to the pickup zone just a peaceful walk in the sun [Applause] seven zero from the smoke approximately uh one zero zero meters away from it now jesse from here i was wanting all right give me some cover get him back here get him back here if you can can you move him can you move him okay freaking try and bring him back here remember to stop the bleeding and deviate the medic having survived another rescue mission brings back his wounded man who is it who is it a question spreads down the line oh christ it's hero the sergeant who likes to walk point how bad is it a couple of leg wounds we were walking down the trail a perimeter out here nice walking point and uh we noticed the side trail it was one of the side trails we came down and had more use on it than when we first came down it so i looked up and spotted uh just a it was an nva had a green uniform at ak and uh it was like a you know quick draw old thing i opened up in him he opened up in me yeah i'm afraid it works that way but he's lying up there on the trail yet i got hit in both legs pop smoke four three popping smoke over here that's about it well we've got seven months in country now three purple hearts i don't need a fourth the enemy soldier who shot jorgensen cannot be found he may have survived or dragged himself off to die most of the time you never really know the problem now is to get hero out of here so blue calls in the medevac helicopter and sets up a perimeter to protect it hero has stopped making brave jokes now the shock has worn off and the pain has begun the helicopter hovers over the jungle and in the midst of the firefight his buddies put hero on the rescue chopper and he's pulled up a hundred feet a hundred feet to a hospital bed and a one-way ticket out of the vietnam war and then it's quiet again alpha troop 1-9 bless one man gingerly making its way back through the heat and the smell of gunpowder back to the pickup zone tomorrow the military communique will read one american was wounded in an engagement with an unknown size enemy force enemy casualties are unknown but you've seen how it really was heroism danger fear all rolled into one words don't describe it richard threlkeld cbs news near the cambodian border

Channel: CBS Evening News

Views: 24,267,908

Keywords: video, cbs, news

Id: 89_3DgW_7mg

Length: 5min 8sec (308 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2015