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| -Obits- |
| Paul Bucha, Medal of Honor recipient in fierce jungle battle, dies at 80 |
| 2024-08-05 |
| [Task&Purpose] The "clerks and jerks" of Delta Company were surrounded and close to being overrun. As Capt. Paul Bucha, the company commander, dodged the machine gun fire from the trees overhead and constant explosions he began to wonder if his mother would ever learn the name of the unmarked grid coordinates where he was about to die. But as he considered those dire thoughts, a young, untested replacement soldier, with no combat experience, ran to Bucha’s position through the hail of fire, "This young kid who’d just joined us," Bucha remembered in an interview. "I mean we were down with fire everywhere, and we were firing what little ammunition we had left because we were trying to conserve it. All hell was raining down on us." The soldier looked at the captain with, shockingly, a smile: "And he says, ’Sir! We’re kicking the hell out of them, aren’t we!’," Bucha said. The captain laughed and replied: "Well, I guess we are." In fact, the battle raged on through the night of March 16, 1968. For hours, Bucha moved between his men, created diversions and feints to confuse the larger enemy force, called in artillery and gunship fire and loaded helicopters with wounded. Ten of Bucha’s soldiers died, with nearly all emerging wounded. Over 150 North Vietnamese were killed in the battle, a toll nearly twice the number of Bucha’s entire company. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #2 I hope he rests in peace. He deserves it... Maybe St. Michael will meet him at the gates... |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2024-08-05 10:44 |
| #1 Bucha's actions were incredible; they included destroying single-handedly a bunker situated forty yards to his front. Throughout the directed helicopter support and evacuation of the wounded. The "clerks and jerks" held out through a long evening until day when they were relieved. 150 enemy were counted among the dead. |
| Posted by: IS 2024-08-05 09:07 |