Surviving Vietnam: Infantry Marine on life and death overseas

An explosive minidoc on the life and legacy of LCPL Kenny Woodall, a three-time purple heart veteran from South Dallas. With newly restored images from the Vietnam War, taken by Woodall during his nine-month deployment under the US Marine Corps.

This episode concentrates on Mike Company, 3rd Batallion of the 26th Marine regiment. In December 1968, the 26th was stationed across the USS Ogden (LPD-5) and USS Tripoli (LPH-10). On January 12, 1969, the company was assigned to operation Bold Mariner, the largest amphibious invasion since Korea. While sweeping the Batang Peninsula for Viet Cong guerillas, a series of landmines killed seven members of the 26th Marines on July 25. Woodall narrowly survived a blast and later identified his dead friends.

From Woodall's unpublished memoirs (1973): "I do not profess to be a writer. But I wanted to put on paper that which I feared might be hazed with the passing of time. Now, nearly three years later, much of it is a fog. After writing the first few sketchy passages I realized how crude my storytelling ability really was, yet still, I must try.

The experiences cannot be relayed properly. One cannot put down in ink the fear felt in a mortar attack, the smell of decaying human flesh, the total defeat and sorrow of seeing one closer than a brother die, the repulsion of pulling leaches from your body, the sound of tiger’s coughing, or the pain of hot shrapnel. Yet it is difficult even more to express the closeness of which human bondage brings you — and the good times. Vietnam was a country of its own type of unparalleled beauty, laced with fear and destruction. So while my aim is to convey my experiences as best I may — try to make some sense of it.

This book is dedicated to James Randall Copeland and David Reimer, my close friends who lost their lives on 25th January 1969 on the sand dunes of the Batangan Peninsula, South Vietnam. Copeland fell and David and I stood there and cried. Minutes later an explosion slammed us to the ground. I pulled up on my hands and knees to look and I found that David was dead. I tried, but I could not shed another tear. And even now, they live and die in my memories."