Word: mortars
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...hour out from Hanoi, Colonel D. blacked out the plane. A few minutes later, Sergeant K., hunched over a radio set, reported: "We have contact with Dienbienphu." Deep down below us, a brilliant white light floated in the air for a few seconds, then died out-perhaps a Communist mortar flare. Luciole started weaving on a gentle, irregular pattern...
...Lone Beacon. At 0050, air-ground reported: "Banjo Six is going in."Tracers arched over the drop zone. On Banjo Six's second pass, there were more enemy tracers and white bursts of flak following the plane. Banjo Six reported one hit but no casualties. At 0103, a mortar flare bloomed over the drop zone and revealed, for an elusive moment, the trenches and scarred earth below. Then mortar shells burst in angry red balls across the drop zone. For the paratroopers that was the toughest drop of the night...
...became a medical corpsman, married an Alexandria girl named Phyllis Ann Jenkins, and last February was shipped off to Korea with the 1st Marine Division. One night just a month later, Corpsman Hammond found himself in a hell on earth-bleeding from wounds and pinned down by murderous mortar and artillery fire with other men of a Marine platoon which was attempting to assault an enemy outpost far in advance of the main line of battle...
...critically wounded himself, valiantly continued to administer aid to the other wounded throughout an exhausting four-hour period. When the unit was ordered to with draw, he skillfully directed the evacuation of casualties and remained in the fire-swept area . . . until he was struck by a round of enemy mortar fire and fell, mortally wounded. By his exceptional fortitude, inspiring initiative and self-sacrificing efforts, Hammond . . . saved the lives of many marines...
...after a misfiring fuse was relit, the earth flew up, as one soldier wrote, like "a waterspout as seen at sea." A gap 500 yards wide opened in the Confederate line. The attackers rushed forward-only to bog, company after company, in the wide crater. The Confederates began lobbing mortar shells, and within a short time, close to one-third of the attackers were wiped...