Clark Lohman, B/2/22....'67 - 68

Clark's Story from our guestbook

I was with Bravo 2-22 Inf Mech 67-68. Just surfed in and I really like your site. I was at Burt Jan 1-2 1968. And I want to thank all you men of the 2/77. That was what I call the longest Night. I was on LP that night and in between the NVA and VC and our people was something that just will not go away, seems like I have the call sign 22 this is LP 2 over I call enemy movement the whole night and by morning our platoon came out expecting to find us dead but by the grace of god we made it. There was probably 25-30 NVA/VC near our position. It was an honor to serve with all you brave men and WELCOME HOME.. And any one with any information on the battle I would sure love to have any pictures or newsclippings, I lost everything I had when my Vietnam career ended May 27, 68 when I was blown up woke up 2 days later, and by the time my duffle bag caught up with me through all the Hospitals I had a couple pair of low quarter shoes and everything else gone. Thanks again nice site.
From Bob Price, 2/22(M) 9/67 - 9/68
Don't know how many of you remember the events of 3/13/68; I'm sure that Clark Lohmann & John Eberwine do. Hard to believe 37 years have passed, many of the details still appear vividly in my memory. The day started out uneventful but certainly didn't end that way for Charlie & Bravo companies.
I was with Bravo Co. so the following is my account of the days events only from Bravo Companies perspective.
We were informed that Charlie Co had hit a bad ambush somewhere in the jungle not to far from our basecamp in Dautieng. They had suffered 3 KIA'S and a number of wounded and were forced to extract themselves without recovering their dead to avoid even further casualties.The KIA'S were, Dave Ditch, Todd Swanson & Lytell Christian three of the many members of the Triple Deuce who died heroically in Vietnam.
Bravo co. was called upon to go back into the jungle to try and recover our dead brothers. We went into the jungle in our normal three column alignment; I was walking point on the right flank when all hell broke loose. We had ran into the same ambush setup and I saw a number of our guys in the center column get shot up. We all hit the ground immediately ; the NVA had set up perfect fields of fire and were raking us with machinegun fire and appeared to also be setup in the trees in front of us. We couldn't see them but they sure as hell knew where we were. I was trapped out front and was screaming at Clark Lohmann to cover my ass with his M60 machinegun to cover my withdrawal to the rear ( otherwise known as a retreat). I couldn't understand why Clark wasn't firing until I turned around and saw that his face was bleeding; his machinegun tray had been hit by the first incoming rounds rendering it inoperable. Movement was almost impossible; there was withering machinegun fire coming inchs over our bodies covering us with leaves & tree parts. Clark raised his head slightly only to have his helmet shot off. I tried to inch back toward Clark and took a piece of splintered bullet in my left arm. We had no idea what was going on with the rest of the platoon, we were trapped out on the right flank.It seemed like an eternity then all of a sudden our crazy platoon sgt., a Sgt Chaney came up behind us snatched us up and told us to pull back behind our APC'S which had pulled up in the jungle a short distance behind us. Sgt Chaney patched us up & told us we were going back in to extract our wounded brothers. At that time the firing became intense once again and we were forced to stay undercover behind the APC'S. It was getting near dusk at this time and the NVA decided to disappear into the jungle.
I heard later on that Alpha CO. came in from another direction forcing the NVA'S decision to fade away. Don't know if this is a fact, maybe someone can verify it. Unbelievably Bravo Co didn't suffer any KIA'S & I'm not sure exactly how many were of us were wounded.
Unfortuanately we didn't recover Charlie Co's KIA'S that day but all three were brought back the next day without further incident.This was just one of the "fun" days of the 365 days that most of us spent in Vietnam. Its been a long time but the memories are still fresh. The three heroes mentioned above are only three of the 312 members of the Triple Deuce who died in Vietnam. Lets hope that none of them are ever forgotten.
I'd love to hear from anyone else who was there that fateful day and hear their personal recollections. Pass your replys on to all of my friends & relatives above as I'm sure they would like to hear your accounts.